The Way You Make Me Fall
by LimeLightning
Summary: An account of the days that followed Terra's death. Beast Boy must cope with his loss and Raven struggles with her emotions. As the Titans battle with new enemies, Beast Boy ultimately reaches his breaking point and Raven is the only one who can save him.
1. Images of Terra

The Way You Make Me Fall

By LimeLightning

AN: Finally this is in writing. I've had this idea in my head for so long- since 'Aftershock'- I know, so outdated. But oh well, because now it's in progress now and that's all that matters.

I've already written about a quarter of the story and the rest is still just a vision, but hopefully it won't take too long to complete (it's already taken me so long to get to this point).

This is my first fanfiction EVER, so please R&R, I'd really appreciate it!

* * *

Chapter 1: Images of Terra

Raven peered over the top of her book, finding it impossible to concentrate on the words in front of her. From her favorite chair in the corner of the Titan's living room she surveyed her teammates. In the corner of the room that was opposite to her, Robin was typing on his laptop. Cyborg sat serenely on the couch, controller of his GameStation in hand, his body movements considerably synchronized with the actions on the screen. At the kitchen stove, Starfire was cooking something thick and green that was bubbling slightly over the sides of the pot.

Raven's eyes shot back down to the pages of her book, but concentration didn't come.

For once in her life it was the sheer silence of the room that distracted her.

Over the faint sound of Cyborg's game and Robin's typing, Starfire's concoction let out a squelch that made Raven's stomach feel a little bit unsettled. Nevertheless, Titans Tower was still missing that sense of liveliness.

If ever someone had told her that reading or meditating under these conditions would have proved to be impossible, she would have been so skeptical; a laugh may have even escaped her emotionless demeanor. But here and now, that was, in fact, the situation that she was finding so hard to acknowledge. That it was the liveliness, the energy…

That certain green dynamic factor that Raven reluctantly missed.

Abandoning her book, Raven closed the volume and placed it beside her, giving in to her thoughts...

For the past few weeks, Beast Boy had been sporting a broken heart, courtesy of Terra. From the start he had been blind-sighted to her treachery.

Raven remembered how numb she felt every time she saw the two together. If she could have expressed her feelings, they would come out as complete and utter fits rage every time she saw Terra nudge closer to Beast Boy on the couch or watched Beast Boy practically swoon over Terra. Raven knew from the beginning that Terra was bad news, but no one could have convinced Beast Boy.

After learning of Terra's betrayal, two weeks ago, saying 'I told you so' just didn't feel right. She watched as Beast Boy tried his best to stay as optimistic as ever, but she knew that, inside, he was hurting. And it was only a matter of time before he gave up on pretending.

In about a week's time, Raven had felt as though the team was pretty much getting back to normal. They had all recovered from the deception, even Beast Boy was beginning to put it behind him.

He was beginning to forget her.

But then, just as quick as she left, she came back with a vengeance. Terra attacked her former teammates with no repentance. She held nothing back, fighting to kill each of the Teen Titans, and he still believed there was goodness in her.

A sudden image appeared in Raven's mind. A memory that, for some reason, she just couldn't get out of her head: He was pinned to the ground, at the mercy of Terra, who stood undefeated. The menacing girl willed a spiked boulder to hover above him

Threatening his life.

'It'll be the last thing you ever do!' Raven had said, only thinking of how badly she wanted to hurt Terra at that moment. Beast Boy, however, did not even flinch. His life was at stake, but he was still thinking of Terra. "It's your choice, Terra," he had said, making Raven feel a little like killing him herself.

It was Terra's choice and she did not let him down. But even though Terra had found the strength to do the right thing, Raven still wasn't sure she could forgive her. Even though Terra had given up her life to save the city from destruction, Raven could not let go of the anger she still felt towards her.

Among many other things, Raven remembered the last embrace she saw Beast Boy and Terra share.

He had held her close, his protective arms wrapped around her, pleading with her to go with him. Terra's eyes brimming with tears, she rested her cheek on his shoulder.

As the others dragged Beast Boy out of the caves, Terra stayed and with her power she stopped the eruption from destroying the city.

Yesterday they had held a funeral for Terra. Under the city in Slade's former lair, Terra's body, covered in molten rock, acted as its own monument. Starfire placed flowers at her feet and Beast Boy laid down a memorial stone. It was a proper ceremony, and it was only fitting that they should have one, since, in the end Terra hadn't died a _complete_ screw-up.

Ever since then, Beast boy had barely said a word. Justifiably upset, he was entirely lost in his thoughts. Raven sensed he had tried to tough it out, being with everyone else, but after a while he had just given up andclosed himself off in his room. Beast Boy's sudden silent treatment seemed to concern the others, who began to persistently knock on his door to make sure he was ok. But Raven wasn't worried; she knew he just needed some time alone. At any rate, what did she care? Everything would be back to normal soon…

Raven's thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the sound of Starfire's enthusiastic voice. Instantly she wondered how she could have taken the rare silence in the room for granted.

"Perhaps someone would like to try the Zwargus I prepared?"

Silence followed as the other Titans were caught off guard by the unexpected predicament.

Starfire brandished a bowl of the thick mixture. "This time I stewed it with the quaid of a fendering Zorbug."

"No." Raven answered bluntly in her monotonous voice.

Cyborb was more gracious, "Thanks Star, but you know, I had a big lunch." With a large hand he hit his stomach, which produced an incriminating hollow sound. "Heh heh," He turned a bit red.

"Yeah, thanks Starfire," said Robin, momentarily turning away from the laptop, "but we're probably going to eat dinner soon." It wasn't even four o'clock yet, but Robin seemed to be strapped for any other excuses.

Starfire was persistent, "Then, maybe Beast Boy would like a sampling. It may be what he needs to help him with the 'cheering up'. I could just knock on his door-"

"No, I'm pretty sure we've knocked on his door enough for one day," said Robin, "I think he just needs some time to be alone."

* * *

Beast boy sat idly on his bedroom floor, leaning against the wall beneath his window. The orange light from the setting sun came flooding into the room, shining its warmth on everything except him. He pulled his knees up to his chest and rested his forehead on his folded arms. His body felt tired and worn-out, but his thoughts were ongoing. Beast Boy tried, once again, to think about something other than Terra. 

But somehow she would always find her way back into his thoughts. He had been sitting in that same spot for what seemed like hours, his mind tortured with thoughts of her.

How her golden hair would fall about her beautiful face

How the sight of her made his heart race

How much he _missed _her.

But then confusion would always set in as he began to consider the burning questions that still remained unanswered:

How could she have betrayed him?

How could she have just thrown away what they had together?

How was he to know if what they shared had even been real…or if it had just been another lie?

It_ felt real_.

Beast Boy knew it was. He had never known anyone like Terra and his feelings for her were genuine. Was it love he had felt? In any case, he had never felt the same way about anybody else…

Well, maybe except for… one other girl.

The single thought was enough to make Beast Boy feel ill from his own disloyalty. Terra was dead and he was thinking about someone else.

Terra was dead.

Suddenly overwhelmed with frustration, Beast Boy became unable to contain his anger. Lashing out at the junk on his floor, he began sending clothes, magazines, and anything else at arms reach, reeling across the room. He knocked over his desk chair and threw a water glass at the wall, satisfied at the loud sounds they made.

When he was finally out of breath, he collapsed on his the bottom bunk of his bed and buried his face in his arms. Terra's death was finally beginning to really sink in.

Sadness overtook him, giving him the feeling of being trapped underwater. He felt his chest begin to heave as he gasped for air, his built-up emotions finally escaping in the form of something like an asthma attack. The air around him felt thick, and his lungs periodically collapsed as they refused to take in oxygen.

He closed his eyes, hoping it would make the feeling go away, but instead he saw Terra.

"Why--did you leave me?" he asked the image between breaths. His voice sounded faint and unrecognizable.

The image began to fade.

Throughout his life everyone who he had ever cared about had died. He didn't understand. Why did it have to be that way?

Desperately, he wished he could just fall asleep so his mind could be at ease for a few hours, but for the past two nights he had lied awake in bed, not even getting so much as an hours' rest. He began to doubt that tonight would be any different.

After a few minutes the attack had subsided. With a few more shuddering sighs, Beast Boy sat up, his back arched in a significant slouch. He ran a hand through his hair and then peered over the side of his bed, assessing the damage to his room.

Truthfully, he could hardly see a difference between the way it looked before and after his rampage.

Sturdily, he decided that he had to take his mind off his problems. The only way to maintain his sanity would be to keep busy. With one more deep breath, he scanned over the mess that he called his room and decided that it would be a project that could temporarily distract him from his thoughts.

* * *

There you have it. My first chapter. I promise it will get more interesting as the plot progresses, I'll try to post the next chapters quickly, before I gain the reputation of a dull fanfiction writer.

* * *


	2. Unusual Behavior

* * *

Chapter 2: Unusual Behavior

Raven suddenly stood up from her chair in the corner of the room. In the kitchen, Robin, Starfire and Cyborg were loudly discussing what to order for dinner, but over the sound of their voices, Raven had heard a different noise. It transpired a second ago, a noise that had sounded a lot like breaking glass, but it did not come from the kitchen.

Unnoticed by the others, Raven moved swiftly across the room and into the deserted hallway. She strained her ears to try to hear what made the sound, but the hall was silent.

As she continued to move through the hall, she automatically stopped at Beast Boy's door. She stared at the cold, gray steel.

It suddenly occurred to Raven that he had missed several meals since she had last seen him, yesterday afternoon. She began to consider knocking on his door, just to make sure he was all right. Undecided, she tentatively moved closer to the door and listened, hoping to hear some sort of sound arise from within.

Any sound, just a sign of life.

And then she heard his voice. And the words seemed to confirm everything she dreaded.

"Why--did you leave me?"

It was a simple question; one that she knew was directed at Terra. Somehow, though, the words meant so much more.

Beast Boy wasn't over Terra.

It was then Raven realized that all this time she had been expecting everything to go right back to the way it was before Terra came into their lives. But no, it was going to be more complicated. Why did that bother her so much?

He had sounded awful. His voice was strangled and his breathing was rough, he sounded discernibly depressed. It was all because of Terra.

Without warning, Raven felt emotions begin to rise up inside of her. They were overwhelming. Raven was aware that, if not properly controlled, her emotions were capable of triggering magic powerful enough to cause some excessive damage.

Raven stealthily left Beast Boy's door, and moved into her own room. Once in its refuge, Raven began meditating.

"_Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos…"_

Over her bed, she levitated with crossed legs, trying desperately to maintain control of her irrepressible emotions.

On occasion, Raven did have breakdowns. Sometimes she would experience so much of a feeling that it would be impossible for her to keep it under control. In those cases, her emotions would escape in the form of power, which usually meant something would get broken or someone would get hurt.

It was the first time she had held back feelings to this extent. With apprehension, she began to doubt her ability to suppress them.

"_Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos…"_

In her meditation, Raven tried in vein to telekinetically channel the feelings back into her subconscious but it was to no avail. She felt herself beginning to lose the battle; her emotions were starting to slip out of her control. She just hopped the damage would not be substantial.

"_Azarath… Metrion…Zinthos…"_

Bracing herself, Raven put up a telekinetic force field around her, hoping it would somehow contain the energy. She wanted to protect the rest of the tower. She wanted to protect her friends.

"_Azarath… Metrion –"_

Raven gave in. She let go of the feelings that plagued her and the energy left her uneasy mind in a surge of power. She felt the emotion course through her body, and she felt it in her soul. Turning her focus to the force field, Raven concentrated on not letting the energy escape.

But to her surprise, there was no horrific blast of power like she had expected.

Alone, in a sphere of black energy, Raven opened her eyes. She saw no signs of danger or damage around her. Cautiously, she lowered her shield and listened for the sounds that should have followed. But there were none.

No resound of shattering glass, no patter of crumbling drywall, no piercing screams.

She wasn't sure how it had happened, but her unrestrained emotional breakdown proved to be completely harmless.

Still in the air, Raven let out a sigh of relief and lowered the hood of her cloak. Her heart was beating as if she had just run a marathon. She let go of the power that held her up and fell gracefully onto her bed.

Thoroughly exhausted, she closed her eyes and fell asleep.

* * *

_The air was damp and stale and she was surrounded by darkness. There was a faint murmur of voices, both very familiar. A blurry picture was beginning to come into focus and Raven began to see the looming walls of rock that encircled her as she entered the cave…_

_Suddenly the sound of crashing rock echoed through the open space. _

_And then she saw him. He was pinned to the ground by a boulder._

_Trapped in the spider's malevolent web._

_Raven stood still in shock as she watched the monster move towards him. It stared at him mercilessly and then raised in the air the spike that was twice his size. _

_With sudden comprehension, Raven recognized the situation she was seeing in front of her. She had to do something. She began to run over to help him, but realized with a start, she wasn't moving at all. She willed her feet to move but they were like lead. Her brain had lost all control over her body._

_Raven was completely powerless. Her blood ran cold with fear as she realized just how frightened she was. She closed her eyes but she could still see. Even with her eyes clamped shut and her face buried in her hands, she was still aware of what was happening around her. Never in her life had she felt this helpless. _

"_Don't do it…" She heard herself speak the words, pleading with the beast. Her voice sounded so small. "Please…don't…" She felt herself shaking. _

_Bang, bang_

_It was the sound of her knees knocking together. She was trembling uncontrollably now, so the sound didn't come as a shock. _

_Bang, bang, bang_

_The world around her started to fade and she began to fall.

* * *

_

With a jolt, Raven woke up. Her eyes opened to the sight of her own room and relief flooded over her. All at once the memories came back to her: standing outside of Beast Boy's room, the surge of emotion that she had felt… that dream-

_Bang, bang, bang_

And that. Now that she was awake, Raven recognized the sound. It wasn't the sound of her knocking knees, but someone knocking on her door.

Raven sat up on her bed and touched a hand to her forehead feeling cool beads of sweat against her skin. Hastily, she put up the hood of her cloak and moved across her bedroom, ignoring the slight shaky feeling that still lingered.

When she opened the door, Robin stood in front of her looking slightly impatient. Though it was sometimes hard to interpret Robin's expressions since his eyes were always hidden behind that mask.

"Sorry, did I bother you." The words seemed like more of a greeting than a question but Raven answered it anyway by shaking her head. Robin smiled at her sociably. "Cyborg just left to pick up dinner and he should be back any minute."

"Thanks," Raven replied impassively. Robin turned to go back to the kitchen.

Raven followed, shutting her bedroom door behind her, as the events of her dream slowly faded from her head.

With nothing to do but wait for dinner to arrive, Raven sat down apathetically on one of the stools next to the counter as Robin and Starfire talked animatedly in the living room. With one leg gracefully crossed over the other, Raven waited, her foot bobbing impatiently.

Just then, the sound of the door sliding open caused her to look up. But when her eyes moved towards the source of the noise, it wasn't coming from the door that Cyborg would have entered through. And it certainly wasn't the emerald gaze of Cyborg that momentarily met her eyes.

Robin and Starfire's conversation abruptly trailed off and the room fell silent.

Beast Boy entered the room, unaware of the three sets of eyes that were fixed upon him. He walked slowly, carrying a large stack of crumpled papers and magazines. His face was expressionless and his green hair was ruffled in all directions, casting a slight shadow over his eyes.

Like always, Starfire could be counted on to break the silence.

"Glorious! Beast Boy, you have chosen to join us!" She flew over to him with excitement but stopped herself before she could give him one of her infamous asphyxiating hugs.

Beast Boy was completely oblivious to the peril that had nearly befallen him. In a daze, he walked over to the kitchen and tossed the pile he was carrying into the recycling box under the sink. But even after he had done this, he stood hunched over the counter, staring distractedly in the other direction. Starfire looked confused and turned to Robin for help.

It was Robin's turn to enquire. "Uh, Beast Boy…?"

Beast Boy slowly turned to face everyone, noticing them all for the first time. His expression changed as he looked at them all expectantly, "Yep?"—

"WHEN CYBORG DELIVERS, ITS ALWAYS HOT! Chinese food! Yeah!" Cyborg's triumphant voice interrupted the situation.

Raven rolled her eyes.

Cyborg came in carrying dinner: two dozen steaming boxes of Chinese food in an oversized paper bag. He began to set everything up on the table before he noticed that no one else was moving. He looked up.

"Oh hey B," his voice was quieter now. "Uh, you want something to eat?"

Beast Boy seemed unfazed. "Hmm, no thanks, I'm not really that hungry." He took a single glance at the table knowingly, "Besides, just a guess, you probably forgot to order anything vegetarian." His tone was good-natured, but it still caused a slight blush to appear on Cyborg's face.

Raven watched as Cyborg began to search the table, gravely determined to find any sort of non-meat item that could have gotten into his order by mistake. Beast Boy started to make his way to the door.

"AH HA! Here," came Cyborg's voice, "Look! Rice!"

Beast boy didn't turn around. "That's chicken-fried rice," he called behind him. And he retreated back into his room.

* * *

AN: Ok, I just had to add in that rice thing for my friend Alex - vegetarians have got it so hard. Anyway, hope you guys are enjoying it so far. Much more BB/Rae to come.

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	3. Another Long Night

AN: In order for this story to work, you kind of have to ignore all post-Season Two moments between BB and Raven, since I plan to bring them much closer in this story than they've been all series. Also, I'm trying to keep BB and Rae in character, but if they seem a bit OoC at times, its because Beast Boy has a broken heart and Raven emotions are feeling rebellious.

Hope you ejnoy this chapter!

* * *

Chapter 3: Another Long Night

There were only a few more stray objects that littered Beast Boy's otherwise spotless room.

He was almost done, but it seemed like the things he had left for the end were the hardest to clean up; the pop cans that sat in a sticky mess on his windowsill, the random objects that were scattered on his floor that had no particular home, and the broken glass that still remained from when he had taken his anger out on his room.

This room that had once been so confining had turned into a place where he could actually think and breathe. And the cleaner his room got, the more he wondered how he could have lasted in those conditions for as long as he did. And the more he thought about that, the more he wondered how long it would take before his room reverted back to those conditions.

Beast Boy decided against sorting through the odds and ends on his floor and instead, reached for the vacuum and hoovered the entire mess. He wiped down his windowsill and threw the cans in the garbage pail that sat neatly beside his desk.

He sat down and surveyed his work.

Nice. No, it was sweet.

He looked around his room with satisfaction. He had even taken apart his bunk bed (with a lot of pushing and swearing and eventually morphing) and cleverly rearranged it into a king-sized.

Everything was perfect. Actually, it was a little too perfect. At his closet, Beast Boy hastily threw some of his clothes around. By his stereo he took some of his CDs off of the shelf where they were stacked and scattered them around for easy access.

There, now it was perfect.

He looked at his clock. It read: "10:32 pm" in its digital blue numbers. His room had only taken about six and a half hours, yet it seemed like he had been working for days.

With his room in its new state of orderliness, he decided it was only right to clean himself up too. Beast Boy left his room and headed for the shower down the hall.

* * *

"No WAY." 

"What happened here?"

"This is… bad?"

"No, it's just… unusual."

Raven walked composedly down the hall past the group of her bewildered friends, who stood gawking through the open door of Beast Boy's room.

Deep down, Raven knew that she too was surprised at the drastic change that had occurred, but not being one to gape, she decided to skip the drama and go to bed.

Walking distractedly, she was just heading toward the bathroom to brush her teeth when she promptly turned the corner and plowed directly into someone.

Caught completely off guard, she lost her balance.

But he automatically caught her arm and steadied her before she could fall.

"Sorry Rae," Beast Boy offered bleakly. He pushed back his towel-dried hair.

"Thanks," Raven said, referring to the way he had kept her on her feet. Raven watched as his damp green hair fell perfectly into his usual messy hairstyle that, somehow, looked really good on him. _He smells good. _

Raven suddenly realized that she was trying to act natural. Raven attempted, "I saw your room... It looks _nice,_" but the words didn't sound natural at all.

Beast Boy didn't seem to notice, he continued to look cheerless. "You can actually see the carpet now. Very uncharacteristic, right?" Then he smiled a little and let out a few bitter laughs.

It was the first time she had seen him smile in days. She smiled a little too. Then she realized that he was still holding her arm.

He must have noticed this too because he quickly let go, then he swiftly changed the subject by peering around the corner at their three friends who were still staring wide-eyed in the doorway of Beast Boy's bedroom.

Raven stood beside him and looked too. She turned to face him, "So, are you going to give us a tour, or what?"

* * *

Beast Boy sat on his bed as the others walked around his room in disbelief. Raven sat casually on ledge of his windowsill. 

"It's so clean. You sure you did all this in one day?"

"Looks great, B. Haha, how long's it gonna stay like this?"

"Spectacular, Beast Boy! I am no longer afraid to venture into this room."

Beast Boy shifted his position on his bed. "Yeah…" Raven noticed that he seemed to shrink away from the attention instead of relishing it like he normally would have.

Robin caught a glimpse of Beast Boy's clock, which now read "11:08 pm". "We should probably start heading in for the night," he began, putting on his superior voice. "There's combat practice at O' 800 hours." Raven hated when Robin used military time.

As everyone said their goodnights, Beast Boy seemed to sink even lower into his bed. The other three Titans left the room but Raven stopped before she reached the door. She leaned patiently on the wall, but Beast Boy didn't even seem to notice that she was still there.

"Are you alright?" She asked lightly.

He looked up at her and his green eyes seemed troubled. "Yeah," he answered. His voice sounded appreciative. It also sounded like he was trying to convince her of something that wasn't true. "I'm fine. Thanks."

Raven nodded. Beast Boy looked back at her intently and she felt a sudden pounding in her chest. Hastily, Raven moved through the open doorway without another word.

When she was back in the protection of her own room, she collapsed on her bed and stared at the ceiling. She was in denial.

But no matter what Raven told herself, she couldn't deny it.

She knew that it had taken all of her willpower just to leave his room.

* * *

By the time '1:00 am' appeared on his clock, Beast Boy was lying in bed, still wide-awake. Tonight, just like the past few nights, his incessant thinking was keeping him up. 

Whenever he closed his eyes the memories would creep up on him, the worst ones being played for him over and over in his head like a silent movie.

In the reoccurring scenes he saw himself, his friends, his parents and adoptive parents, and Terra. He watched himself at all ages as he relived his troubles again and again: the deaths, the violence and the desolation he had experienced over the years, the things that he had worked so hard to block out of his mind, only to have them replayed in front of his closed eyes.

For years he had kept the memories hidden without difficulty. He had buried them away inside himself and created a façade, hiding his past under a cheery disguise. But for some reason, now, everything was coming back to haunt him. It was as if Terra was the last straw and he could no longer keep his problems hidden away and under control.

Lying in bed, Beast Boy knew that there was no hope of getting any sleep. He turned on his light, like he had for the past two nights, grabbed a stack of books from his shelf, half of which he had read the nights before, and headed for the living room of Titans Tower.

As he headed down the hall, he passed the same door that he always passed on his way to the living room. Raven's room. The place where she spent the majority of the day, just reading and meditating, was right down the hall from his own room.

So close, yet so far.

Just hours ago, when everyone had left his room, Raven had stayed behind. She had asked him if he was alright and more than anything he had wanted to tell her the truth.

He wanted to tell that for once in his life he needed somebody to confide in. Somebody who knew what it was like to have to hide so many feelings.

* * *

_The moist air sent a familiar chill down her spine. Raven vaguely remembered being in this place before: surrounded by this same darkness, the same voices mumbling indistinctly. There was something about everything that made her feel very uneasy. _

_The darkness began to fade and she began to get a view of her surroundings. __And as the great walls of rock began to come into focus, she began to remember. _

_That same echo of crashing rock thundered through her mind. The uneasiness Raven felt soon turned into sheer trepidation._

_Just like the last time, he was there. _

_Raven watched her friend as he struggled with the boulder._

_And as she watched and remembered what was going to happen, she began to feel strange emotions rising up in her chest. Anger, fear, sadness, frustration; a profusion of emotions that she had kept built up for so long were now all about to break free._

_Raven sensed that the scene in front of her was about to unfold quickly. If she wanted to help, this would be her only chance._

_With determination, Raven flew over to Beast Boy and dropped to the ground beside him. He seemed surprised and he looked into her eyes with dismay._

"_Raven! No- you have to leave! I'll be fine- just get out of here while you can."_

_Raven used her powers to telekinetically lift the boulder off of Beast Boy's ankle. "No, look, this time it's working!" she felt proud of the way things were going so far. "We just have to get past-"_

_She felt the blood drain from her face. __In her delusional dream-state she thought that they had more time than they did._

_Terra was already standing in front of them._

_The fear Raven felt was real. As Terra raised the spiked boulder directly above them, Raven noticed the odious look in her eyes. _

_As the spike came down, Raven screamed in pure terror._

_The sheer emotion that ripped through her could be heard as her voice rang through the cave and into the world beyond her dream.

* * *

_

Raven was jolted back into reality.

She was awake, sitting upright in her bed and breathing hard, fear still creeping around inside her. Her scream still echoed through the room.

Raven pulled her knees into her chest and squeezed her eyes shut; her dark room sent a chill up her spine.

Suddenly, the din of crunching metal sounded from her closed door, which wasn't closed for long.

Beast Boy stood in her open doorway; he had knocked the door down in one blow.

Raven sat still, extremely bewildered, but she felt relief spill over her at the sight of him.

"Are you OK?" Beast Boy moved towards her. "What happened?"

Raven sat with wide eyes in her cold bed. "I - I'm fine," she stuttered in confusion. "I just…I had a dream." Seeing Beast Boy here and now seemed so surreal, for a second she wondered if she was still dreaming.

Beast Boy was now standing half way between her bed and her door. His features were barely visible in the dim light coming in from the hallway. His figure was just a silhouette in the dark but the way he stood he seemed to exude an unexpected sort of tough confidence and strength that she had never noticed before.

"I heard you scream," Beast Boy continued with concern in his voice. He looked around the room as if expecting to find something out of the ordinary. "I just… I figured you were in trouble, so I…" He suddenly sounded a bit confused. He turned and looked at Raven's flattened door lying ludicrously on the floor. Then he turned back to Raven for a second, even in the darkness of he room, she could almost tell he was blushing, probably waiting for Raven to erupt with rage. He turned on his heel. "I'm sorry," With effort, he hoisted Raven's door upright. "I didn't mean to, you know… burst in like that." And he positioned the door so that it covered the space where it used to be, and then he slid it aside a few feet. "I'll just go now."

Raven watched Beast Boy in a daze. It was only when he began to move past her repositioned door that she seemed to gain comprehension.

"Wait!" She heard herself cry out.

Beast Boy stopped and turned around in the doorway.

"Wait," she repeated, "Don't go. Please." There was a pause and she suddenly felt insecure. She pulled her knees in closer to her chest. The chill from her dream had not yet left her; in her head she still heard the crash of boulders. In the darkness she could still see an ominous monster. She closed her eyes shut in an attempt to make everything go away.

Then she felt someone lightly touch her shoulder.

She realized that Beast Boy was standing beside her. "Everything OK?"

She opened her eyes and looked up at him. And, somehow, she felt all her apprehensions melt away.

Beast Boy sat on the edge of her bed. But he was looking in the direction of her mangled door. After a few moments, he broke the silence, "You know, this is only the second time I've ever been inside your room… and both times I've had to literally break down a door to get in."

Raven couldn't help but give a bitter little laugh. She remembered back to a few months earlier when Beast Boy and Cyborg accidentally knocked down her door and stumbled into the portal inside her mirror.

"Yes, once again you have found a way to invade my privacy," she said in her usual Raven-ish way.

But Beast Boy seemed to pick up on the small element of teasing in her voice and shot back good-naturedly, "You can't deny that I only break-and-enter with the best intentions."

They both smiled into the darkness.

When beast boy continued, however, he was quieter. "That must have been some dream."

Raven shrugged. She was always rather apprehensive when it came to confiding in people, and she would have jumped off a bridge before she told Beast Boy that he was in her dreams. But looking at him now, she felt a strange attachment to him. Even lately, after all he had been through, he never stopped caring for others.

"I'm surprised it didn't wake up the entire tower," Beast went on, sitting still for a moment, as if waiting to hear the other Titans come rushing down the hall.

Suddenly Raven felt indebted.

"Thanks," she said evenly and Beast Boy looked at her in surprise. Raven continued before he could ask. "For being here, I mean. And for…well, not for breaking down my door, but if… if I actually had been in real trouble you would have been here, so thanks… And I'm sorry I woke you up.

Beast Boy was silent for a moment, apparently taken aback by her rare display of kindness. "No problem," he said softly. "Actually, I was up anyway. I couldn't sleep, I was just hanging out on the couch when I heard you."

Raven nodded. Then she glanced at the clock beside her bed. It was quarter to six.

She reached for her cloak that she had hastily flung onto her bedside table the night before and slipped it on. "I have a feeling neither of us are going to be getting any more sleep tonight." She said.

Raven stood up and walked over to the door and Beast Boy followed. Looking at it more closely,she could see the large dents in the metal that looked suspiciously like impressions made by the horns of a ram. She raised an eyebrow at Beast Boy in mock irritation but he purposely ignored her and slid the door aside once more. Then he gestured politely for Raven to move through the doorway before him and the two of them walked quietly down the hall together.

* * *


	4. Wandering Minds

AN: Thanks so much for your reviews so far! I love hearing from everybody, but don't be afraid to criticize, I can take it.This is the last of my pre-written chapters, from here on I actually have to make an effort to finish the story.

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Chapter 4: Wandering Minds

In the Main Room of Titans Tower the sun was just starting to rise. Warm orange light began to flood in through the windows while Raven and Beast Boy enjoyed a comfortable silence and the other Titans still slept peacefully.

Raven stood at the kitchen counter as she prepared her herbal tea. She poured the boiling water into her mug and stirred the teabag around absentmindedly, watching as the water slowly changed color. But then her gaze seemed to drift from her tea into the living room.

And it drifted until her eyes fell on the couch.

There he was, lounging on the couch, sitting upright yet hunched over at the same time. The back of the couch separated the two of them, so, at first, Raven could only see the side of his face. His head was hung down and his eyes looked like they were closed. She picked up her tea and moved closer.

When she sat down silently in the chair beside the couch she saw differently.

He was reading. Deeply absorbed in book. And then Raven noticed that, on the coffee table in front of them, there were two large stacks of books, one slightly taller than the other. With captured interest, Raven hastily read a few of the book spines.

In the taller stack, there were two thick Tom Clancy novels, _Red Rabbit _and_ The Teeth of the Tiger_; James Patterson's _Cat & Mouse; Cujo _by Stephen King; Peter Benchley's account of_ Jaws_;and arather beat-up looking copy of _Watership Down._

Raven smiled in spite of herself. Had Beast Boy had purposely chosen books that all had animal references, or was it just coincidence? Then she noticed the book he was currently reading, which just further supported her theory.

_Life of Pi_. A novel about a boy stranded on a life raft with wild animals.

In a strange way, Raven almost regretted feeling surprised. Of course she knew that Beast Boy owned many books, why should she be surprised to see him reading them? She was used to seeing him spend his time watching movies and playing video games with the others, but she always thought reading was her thing- something quiet that no one else shared her interest in, something that separated her from the others.

For some reason, she had always felt that Beast Boy was a lot smarter than he let on. Sometimes she would catch him saying things that were truly intelligent, whether it was in contributing to a mission or just something he said during a conversation, almost as if by accident, and it would stick in her memory. Humor, she thought, was his way of hiding himself. Not that anyone was really seeing much of his humorous side lately.

Looking at his face more closely, Raven noticed for the first time how worn out he really looked. He seemed paler than usual. His brilliant green eyes were missing their usual sparkle and they were traced with dark circles. Even his jaw line had a sort of rougher look to it and she guessed that he had probably gotten careless with his razor.

He looked rough, she realized, but he was still quite good-looking.

With a start Raven realized that Beast Boy was looking at her and she quickly returned her gaze to her tea. How long had she been staring at him? How long had he _seen_ her staring at him?

"Are you going to read all of those books?" She asked, her eyes now concentrated on the stacks on the table.

Beast Boy lowered his book. He took a second to sit up and stretch his back before he answered her. "Those," he said lazily as he gestured to the tall stack of books, "are the ones I've just finished. And those ones," He pointed to the smaller stack, "I'll read after I'm finished this one." And he leaned back again as he spun_ Life of Pi _around in his hands.

Raven marveled at how carefree he seemed at that moment. Was it just an act or could he actually be getting over Terra already? Would he be back to his old self soon?

Not that she wanted that or anything.

"You expect me to believe that you read all of those last night?" Raven replied incredulously.

Beast Boy didn't seem fazed by her skepticism. "Over the past few nights, actually… It's really amazing how much you can get done when you don't sleep."

Raven was silent for a second. "So…I guess you haven't slept since…?" she trailed off, not sure if she should speak of Terra's death. She was surprised to hear a touch of concern in her own voice.

Beast Boy stared at the material on the couch. His carefree expression had faded into a slightly anxious one. "Not since sometime last week," he admitted. "I just can't seem to get my mind off of everything that's happened lately."

Raven felt a strong feeling rise up in her chest. She had never seen him like this before, so defeated and vulnerable. She wanted so much, at that moment, to just sit next to him and tell him that everything was going to work out. All she wanted was to see him smile again. All she wanted was him… Wait, _what_?

Raven stood up so fast that she knocked her tea mug off the arm of her chair and it shattered into pieces on the floor.

Beast Boy sat up in surprise, "What's wrong?"

But she could barely hear him. She moved behind her chair with her back to Beast Boy, her mind rushing with thoughts.

Over the past twelve hours she had felt more emotion than she had all year.

That wasn't supposed to happen; she wasn't supposed to feel. Not surprise or regret, fear or sadness or worry or any of the things she had felt lately. Something was wrong.

There must be something wrong with her. She had to control her emotions.

"What is it?" She heard Beast Boy's concerned voice come from close behind her.

"It's nothing," She answered coldly and moved a few steps away from him. "I have to meditate," And she moved out of the room without looking back.

* * *

Beast Boy stood in silence as he watched Raven leave the room, a puddle of tea and broken ceramic pooling at his feet. He racked his brain trying to figure out what he had said or done to deserve the cold shoulder from Raven, but after a while he just gave up. After all, Raven didn't every really need a reason to act hostile; it was just what she did. 

But the more he thought about it, the more he realized just how different she had been acting lately. Until just now, she had been kind and placid towards him, highly unusual.

Then his thoughts drifted back to the moment he heard her scream…

He had been lying on the couch reading, his mind focused on the words in front of him, when her scream had broke the silence. He knew it was Raven. At once his mind had begun to spin with thoughts about all kinds of awful danger she could be in at that moment. Within seconds he had broken her door down instinctively, he barely even remembered running down the hall to get there. And there had been Raven, in her bed shivering, and he actually saw fear in her eyes. At that moment, all he had thought about was how much he wanted to protect her.

Beast Boy shook the thoughts from his head, a little bit surprised to feel himself blushing.

Then a small wave of guilt washed over him as Terra's face suddenly flashed in his mind.

"Don't give me that." He said out loud to his mind, even though he knew it had a point.

* * *

Raven was in her room hovering over her bed in meditation. Her eyes were shut lightly, her legs were crossed in meditation-position and her body was relaxed and ready to be taken away to another place. Everything was as it should have been. Except for the fact that her mind was not functioning properly. 

Ordinarily she would have already crossed the threshold into that place in her mind, but not this morning. Was she concentrating too hard? Or was her mind too full or too confused to do what she asked of it?

'_Stop thinking,' _She scolded herself._ 'Clear your mind.'_

Finally, after a few minutes, that familiar weightless feeling swept over her and she felt as if her body was being transported along with her mind as she found the place she was looking for.

_Raven opened her eyes in her mind as shining white stars began to appear overhead in a vast black sky. Underneath her, brown rocky terrain was suspended in space and on it, a path leading to an immense stony castle in the distance. But she was already so used to these surroundings that she barely ever paid any attention to them. _

_Just like she planned, Raven started down the path toward the castle. She desperately needed to talk to a certain someone called Intelligence. But when she looked up, she suddenly stopped dead in mid-air and did a double take._

_Raven had laid eyes on that same castle all her life and it was a place she often visited in her mind, she must have gone inside at least a thousand times. It was the place where all of her emotions lived- literally her home away from home. But now something was different about it. _

_It glowed! The darkness inside the castle was replaced by an alluring white light, which shone through the windows and now seemed to light up the entire sky. _

_Raven was still frozen in the air above the rocky path, her bewilderment getting the best of her. 'What the hell is going on?_'

_BANG, BANG-_

The noise caught Raven off guard as it jolted her back into reality and sent her crashing back down towards earth. Luckily she was over top of her bed.

"What is it?" Raven growled at her bedroom door and she pulled herself out of a tangled mess of bed sheets.

Robin was standing in her doorway and actually holding her door upright like he had just saved it from falling over. With effort, he peered in at her from behind it, looking ridiculous. "Combat practice in ten minutes," he said in his most authoritative-sounding voice, which then faltered a bit. "Uh, what happened to your door?"

* * *

Combat practice began as it usually did. An eager Robin programmed a new training sequence into the combat room's supercomputer as everyone else filed into the enormous room with a little less enthusiasm. The five titans warmed up as the program began to lay out the combat course for the day. 

But as Raven hastily stretched her tense muscles, she warned her mind to concentrate fully on her training and the task at hand. And for some reason, she felt a bit apprehensive.

The computer's voice sounded, echoing through the immense space, "_Training sequence will activate in 5…4…3… 2…1…"_

At once, newly installed mechanisms began to come to life as panels in the walls and floor began to open, revealing Robin's idea of a temperate workout. Automatic laser-loaded disks began to spill out of the walls by the dozens, whizzing through the air and targeting each of the Titans successively, sending short bolts of red electric energy in their directions. On the floor, thin mechanical cylinders began to meander around like sleek metal snakes, targeting Titans with the same bolts of energy, all the while looking to strap down and strangle anyone they could coil around.

The team did not need the words, "_Titans_ _Go," _to persuade them to move, no one wasted any time returning the attacks of the rampant onslaught, even if it was just for training purposes. Raven and Starfire took to the air immediately, dodging disks and their attacks. Starfire's aim was exact as she took down disk after disk with her starbolts and Raven followed suit. With confidence, Raven sent daggers of energy into countless offenders, causing them to explode and fall to the ground. Robin, Cyborg and Beast Boy stayed on the ground, where distributing attacks between disks and snakes was a fine balance.

Unexpectedly, the broken, flaming disks would fall from above after Raven or Starfire shot them down (something Raven thought Robin had probably forgot to take into consideration when designing his program) and would pose a threat to the three guys on the ground. One just missed Robin's head and only slightly grazed his shoulder as he rolled out of the way of the falling wreckage. Taking out his Bo staff, Robin continued the fight against their attackers as he leapt over the slithering cylinders and with a flying kick, sent one snake hurling into a wall where it crumpled into a pile, short-circuiting.

Raven made a mental note to be more conscious of her friends on the floor as she telekinetically stopped a dozen disks in mid-air and sent them all crashing into a wall. But in the second that her back was turned, a bolt of energy hit her from behind and she spun around quickly to find more disks coming towards her, their red laser bolts flying everywhere. She narrowly avoided their attacks and one bolt hit her hand, but luckily they were not programmed to hurt too much. She swiftly sent those disks into the wall too and then took a second to survey the situation.

There were only about a few dozen disks left but on the ground the snake-like cylinders were not even close to being conquered. Cyborg had brought out his sonic cannon and was shooting a stream of blue energy at one that had coiled around his feet, but once that one fell, more snakes just took its place. Beast Boy had morphed into an enormous green tiger and made a lethal swipe at a snake, cutting it cleanly in half with his blade-like claws, but there were still too many. One lunged at Beast Boy, coiling itself tightly around the tiger's stomach but he quickly morphed into a rat and escaped its tight grip, and then a velociraptor, biting it in two. Starfire was moving closer to the ground now, shooting starbolts at the snakes where she could, but Raven could see the disks beginning to move in on their targets on the ground, so she quickly flew upwards and used her powers to bring the offending disks up with her and with a great surge of power, she sent them careening into the high ceiling above her, where each of them exploded into dust.

Raven's eyes drifted to the ground once more and she caught sight of Beast Boy, who had morphed back to his human form. He was almost directly below her. Snakes were coming at him from all directions, but he threw several expertly aimed punches that sent his attackers swiftly to the ground.

Before Raven could stop herself, she felt her mind drifting back to just hours earlier. Beast Boy had broken down her door because he thought she was in trouble. He had sat beside her on her bed and he had comforted her.

Raven shook herself out of it, furious with herself. She was supposed to be concentrating on her training. And in an attempt to make up for time she had just wasted, she quickly turned around in the air, but failed to see the disk that was flying in her direction at top speed.

The disk made contact with her temple, where it hit her with enough force that she was knocked backwards in the air. Her vision became blurry and she felt warm blood begin to slide down the side of her face and into her hair. Her eyes closed automatically as she began to fall, just barely hanging on to consciousness.

* * *

AN: So there's a bit of a cliffhanger for everybody. Starting now it will most likely get a little bit more actiony. I will really try to get the next chapters up soon, but first I have to pass my exams.

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	5. A New Enemy

AN: Hey guys! Thanks for your reviews. Sorry I haven't updated in a while- my exams are over but this semester is already so much work. It might take a while for the remaining chapters to go up, but they will all go up eventually. Enjoy chapter 5!

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Chapter 5: A New Enemy

Raven couldn't stop herself from falling; her brain had lost all control over her body. Semiconsciously, Raven braced herself for the sickening impact that awaited her.

But it never came.

Someone had broken her fall, caught her in their arms.

Raven's eyes were still closed, but the world was screaming into her ears. Every noise around her seemed echo twice as loudly in her throbbing head: the sound of Robin ordering the computer to shut off the training program, immediately followed by, '_TRAINING SEQUENCE TERMINATED_,' the computer's deafening response, and a thundering mechanical noise as all of the intact villainous training robots returned to their places in the walls and ceiling. Then there was the unmistakable sound of Starfire's worried voice and Cyborg running towards her in his heavy-treading robotic boots.

Amongst all of the raucous noise she heard the faint grunt from above her… a gorilla? She could feel its fur brush softly against her skin for only a moment, and then the feeling vanished suddenly as she shifted in its arms.

"Raven? Come on Rae, wake up," Beast Boy's voice was soft and calming in her ears. It was the only sound she could hear. Raven concentrated on his voice and she forced her eyes open.

Everything was blurry and she had to blink rapidly to get things into focus. When her vision began to clear, the first thing she saw was Beast Boy. She was staring directly into his bright green eyes, which were full of concern.

She was in his arms.

Raven vaguely remembered flying above him, seeing him fighting almost directly beneath her. And she must have fallen directly into his arms, which was where she still was at the moment.

"Hey, you ok? Raven, talk to me." He sounded worried and she followed his gaze as he alternated looks between her eyes and a spot on her hairline, just above her right ear. She was surprised at how effortlessly he held her, as if she weighed less than a feather.

"I'm fine," she said faintly. She was suddenly aware that Robin, Cyborg and Starfire were all standing around her too. Beast Boy carefully lowered her to the ground, helping her stand.

But the moment her feet touched the ground, the room began to spin. She closed her eyes in an attempt to regain her stability, but it only got worse as her legs gave out beneath her. But Beast Boy was still holding her and she clung to his arm for support.

In her state of delirium, she felt the changeling gently lift her into his arms once again. He held her easily as he began to move across the room. Raven wasn't exactly sure where he was bringing her and she didn't really care. A strong pain moved around in her head, causing her to shut her eyes even tighter as she let her forehead fall onto Best Boy's shoulder.

"Stay with me," she heard his gentle voice whisper from slightly above her.

A moment later Raven felt herself being placed down on one of the benches against the wall of the training room. She could hear her friends around her talking in apprehensive voices. This time when she opened her eyes, the dizziness began to pass.

This time, Raven's vision came into focus on a different set of anxious green eyes. Starfire hovered above Raven, her bright face only inches away and looking hopeful, relieved and worried simultaneously.

"My friend! You are undamaged?"

"Yeah," Raven replied nonchalantly as she hastily moved her hand over the cut above her ear and healing it within seconds. The pain began to fade and she felt back to normal.

Cyborg handed her a water bottle and she accepted it gratefully. After several big gulps of water she turned to Beast Boy who was sitting beside her on the bench.

But before she could utter the words, "Thank you," to him, she was accosted by Robin who had managed to shove his way in front of Beast Boy. "I'm sorry," said Robin plainly, "The training program still has a few flaws that have to be worked out."

"It was my fault," Raven replied in her normal monotonous tone, "I should have been more focused." As she spoke the words her gaze shifted to Beast Boy who was now standing and beginning to walk in the other direction.

Raven stood up, meaning to follow him. As soon as she got to her feet, however, an intense red light filled the room, accompanied by a familiarly shrill noise that they all recognized as the Teen Titans' emergency siren.

"Titans, trouble!"

* * *

He flew swiftly through the air, the midmorning breeze ruffling his green feathers. Starfire and Raven were flying just slightly behind him and, on the ground below, the T-car was speeding carefully down one of Jump City's back roads, carrying Cyborg and Robin. 

Beast Boy relaxed his wings and allowed himself to glide through the air. Usually before a mission he could feel the adrenaline pumping through his body, in a mix of anticipation and anxiety, but this time he felt nothing at all.

Decreasing his speed only a little, he was able to catch a glimpse of Raven, gliding beneath him. She had scared him earlier. He remembered seeing her get hit and start to fall, and he remembered those seconds in which he felt his heart stop abruptly. He had been completely unaware of himself at that moment: he remembered Raven in his arms, but he could not recall catching her, or morphing… It was unusual for Raven to lose focus during a fight or training, and he wondered if she was alright. He caught another glimpse of her, almost expecting her to fall out of the air a second time, but she didn't. Like always, she looked strong and focused, the hood of her cloak casting a dark shadow over her face, her eyes glowing a brilliant white. And suddenly he was reminded of Terra.

More and more it seemed like the slightest, or most random things reminded him of her, especially in this case, since Raven and Terra were complete opposites. Nevertheless, any thought at all of Terra was enough to make him relive the feelings of sadness and loss that he could not escape. The horrible dropping feeling in his stomach caused his wings to falter a bit, and he was relieved to see the T-car below him come to a screeching halt.

He swooped down to the ground and landed in his human form next to Cyborg and Robin, immediately followed by Raven and Starfire.

The five Titans stared up at the scene unfolding in front of them.

Terrorizing the streets were at least fifty of Slade's robots.

"But all of these guys were disabled once we defeated Slade," Cyborg hastily pointed out.

Robin gave a quick nod, "We have to find out who's behind this. _Titans Go!"_

Several terrified citizens fled from the scene, the terror which they had just begun to recover from was, all at once, very real again. The Teen Titans intervened, targeting the criminal robots and they automatically split up, knowing that individually they had a better chance of disabling the robots faster.

Beast Boy, listless but concentrating on the task at hand, turned into a triceratops and easily plowed down and trampled three robots . Then in his human form he dodged a cybernetic blast from an oncoming assailant and then reduced it to scrap metal with a hit of his giant gorilla fists.

As he fought, he felt some of his built-up frustration begin to melt away.

Only a couple of robots surrounded Beast Boy when another shot missed him by mere inches. The blast traveled over his shoulder and hit a telephone pole behind him, causing the transformer to explode with an ear-splitting crack as sparks showered down to earth. In seconds the telephone pole was crashing to the ground and the changeling had to deftly dive out of its path to avoid peril.

When Beast Boy got to his feet and brushed himself off, he was alone. He stood among the robotic wreckage in the deserted street; the other titans had disappeared in search of more offenders. Beast Boy was just about to leave the site as well, but suddenly a scream rang through the air.

"_HELP!_"

It was Terra's voice.

Beast Boy jumped into action, immediately running to find the source of the noise. It was close by. His mind was racing; he could not even take a second to morph. It wasn't until a few seconds later that he remembered that it couldn't possibly be Terra, after all…

Following his keen animal senses, he stumbled down a dim and unusually narrow alleyway. The end of the ally was a dead end, a shadow cast by the adjacent buildings blocked out the sunlight and left the end of the alley eerily dark. Beast Boys eyes adjusted quickly to his dim surrounding and at the very end of the ally, he was able to make out a jumble of twisted ropes restraining a slim, blonde-haired figure, a dark figure lurking behind. _Terra?_

"Let her go!" he yelled, but he stood his ground. Throughout his years of training, he learned never to act too rashly in situations where victims were being held. He was close enough now to tell that the girl was not Terra, but an ordinary girl, about fourteen.

He was delusional; obviously it never could have been Terra.

A voice sounded out of the darkness behind the girl, "You want her, take her!"

At once the jumbled mass of ropes was released and the frightened girl was pushed toward Beast Boy. There were tears streaming down her cheeks and there were cuts on her arms and neck, most likely from where the rope had cut in. Beast Boy caught her gently and then stood between her and her attacker as she ran down the alley to safety and disappeared from sight.

"Who are you!" Beast Boy demanded fiercely, unable to control his hatred for this person he had only just met.

As the dark figure slowly moved out of the shadow, the mass of tangled ropes moved along with him and Beast Boy began to get a better look at his new adversary. The light revealed a fairly ordinary-looking man, about 6' 3, with ragged clothing, graying hair and jet back eyes. The mess of ropes revealed to be not ropes at all, but sinister looking jungle vines that seemed to be alive and growing. The vines were attached the man's back, seemingly growing out of his spine.

"_What_ are you?" Beast Boy automatically took a step back. At once, several vines shot toward him with lightning speed and knocked him off his feet. He quickly recovered, getting to his feet he charged at his opponent in the form of a massive gorilla.

To Beast Boy's rage, the vine-man only seemed amused. The thick rope-like plants once again shot towards Beast Boy and wound themselves around the gorilla's fists, holding him off with surprising strength and preventing Beast Boy from even getting close to his intended target. As he struggled against the vines, his enemy did not even have to lift a finger. Changing his tactic slightly, Beast Boy gripped the vines and pulled them sharply toward him.

His opponent, caught off guard at first, regained his composure and sent vines backwards to hold onto the alley walls and help secure his position while he played tug-of-war with Beast Boy.

The man's ominous black eyes glinted with malice. "Just call me _Poison Oak_," he said with a twisted smile.

Without warning, the vines in Beast Boy's fists began to change from green to a deep shade of red. Within seconds searing pain began to course through his hands and reduced him back into his human form.

"Arrrhhh!" He tried to pull away, but the vines wound even tighter around his hands. He gritted his teeth.

"_Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!_" The words were yelled from somewhere behind him. Beast Boy watched as a blade of dark energy swiftly severed the vines; the ones wrapped around his hands released their hold and fell to the ground. Raven flew past Beast Boy and enveloped Poison Oak in dark energy, pushing him hard against the back wall of the alley.

Raven's eyes shined white. "You were the one behind Slade's Robots!" She yelled at the villain.

But Poison Oak did not seem threatened at all. He smiled his sinister smile up at Raven. "I'd like to say that I was, Beautiful. Unfortunately I just happened to be in the right place at the right time." With that, his vines shot out in all directions, breaking the field of energy that Raven was holding him back with. The force threw Raven to the ground.

By the time Beast Boy had helped Raven to her feet, their new enemy had already used his vines to scale the height of the alley and disappear over the top of the ten-storey building.

Still incensed, Beast Boy was about to follow.

"Wait." Raven stopped him.

"Shouldn't we—?"

"No. We'll go find the others first. .. Plus, you're in no condition to fight," Raven concluded.

Beast Boy looked down at his hands. The vines had burned holes right through his gloves and into his flesh. Blood had already begun to stain the remaining fragments of his grey gloves a bright red.

"Here," Raven said coolly as she lifted his hands in hers. Beast Boy drew in a sharp breath, but she seemed to ignore it. In seconds the pain began to fade as Raven healed the wounds on his hands.

Beast Boy looked into Raven's eyes. "Thanks," He said.

She nodded. "It's the least I could do."

* * *

AN: It has come to my attention that many people do the 'disclaimer' thing and i haven't. Personally, I think its a waste of space; it is obvious that I do not own Teen Titans as I am, in fact, quite broke. However, the 'new enemy', Poison Oak was my own creation, along with his somewhat cliche background (which you will hear all about soon). 

Chapter 6 is already in the works, so sit tight.

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	6. Dusk

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A/N: Hi Everyone, after months of neglect, I am finally back with another chaper! So sorry for the extremely long hiatus. I hope most of you will be able to rekindle your interest in my story. 

Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans.

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Chapter 6: Dusk

By the time Raven and Beast Boy tracked down the other Titans, their new rival was nowhere to be found. Not yet feeling discouraged, in view of their new lead, the Titans headed back to the tower to work out an action plan.

Once inside, Robin promptly went to work, connecting his computer to the big screen. As he prepared the briefing, the other titans seated themselves around the room somewhat irritably, as Robin's presentations often ran longer than necessary.

Beast Boy threw himself on the couch. His body was exhausted, most likely due to lack of food and sleep, but he didn't even care. His mind wandered, as if in a dream-state, a million thoughts rushing together at once. The image of their new villain's piercing black eyes appeared in his mind, sending a sudden shiver of hatred through his body. This was a villain that lacked both the simplicity of the common crook and the intelligence of a criminal mastermind. He was, in all probability, a man that was mentally unstable, enjoyed preying on young women, and just happened to have convenient freakish jungle mutations. A sudden vision of Terra flashed through his head as he remembered the terrified girl he had saved. Her voice had sounded so much like Terra. Not only was he seeing her face everywhere, now he was hearing her voice… How long would it be before Terra would stop haunting his thoughts and let him get on with his life?

"Beast Boy?"

The changeling looked up in surprise, only to see Robin staring at him impatiently. The briefing had already started and Robin must have called his name several times because he asked, "Are you paying attention?"

Beast Boy nodded tiredly, "Yeah." He caught a glimpse of Raven looking at him from across the room.

Robin continued, "Alright, so from what we know already, this "Poison Oak" is somehow genetically mutated so that he has the ability to control plants that are, most likely, connected to his nervous system somehow. At will, he can apparently activate the vines' corrosive properties so that they can burn through skin. Cyborg, have you finished the scan?"

Beast Boy turned to Cyborg, who was sitting to his right, his robotic arm scanning over a fragment of the vine that had burned through Beast Boy's gloves less than an hour earlier. Cyborg nodded and then recited his findings, "The plants cells appear to produce an acid that can be absorbed into the plant's surface, making it corrosive to the touch. But despite our criminal's name, the acid doesn't seem to have any poisonous affects." Cyborg then took a second to shove Beast Boy's shoulder good-naturedly, "Lucky for you, man!"

"Mmhmmm," was the only response Beast Boy could give.

Robin's presentation continued, "Ok so what it comes down to is that this is a powerful enemy, but nothing we can't handle. Once we find a way to get past the stinging vines, we may be able to question him about his connections with Slade."

Robin's last statement caught Beast Boy's attention and he shifted his position on the couch so he was sitting up straighter. "Uh, Robin," he began, "I don't think that Poison Oak is the one behind Slade's Robots. I mean, the two have no connection."

Robin looked slightly indignant. "I think it was more than just coincidence, Beast Boy. This guy was in a dark alley behind the street that Sade's robots were terrorizing. If that doesn't sound like he was behind it, I don't know what does."

Beast Boy stood up. "I'm just saying that I think we're looking for two different crooks this time. You of all people should know that Slade wasn't one to trust other criminals, what makes you think that this guy would know anything about Slade? Besides, Raven and I both heard him say 'he would have liked to have been behind it, but he wasn't'."

"And once again, you choose to trust a criminal!" Robin shot back heatedly.

Beast Boy fell silent. Robin's expression fell slightly and he looked as though he would have liked to retract his statement. With no fight left in him, Beast Boy walked past Robin and left the room.

Robin's conference fell to an awkward close once Beast Boy left. Raven, Cyborg and Starfire were silent as Robin went on talking like nothing had happened, in spite of the slight flush that remained on his face. "Next time, we'll be ready for him," he concluded lamely.

As the Titans got up to leave and carry on with their days, Raven stayed in her chair. She was quite aware that when it came to Slade, Robin had the tendency of overreacting. It was in his nature to sometimes jump to conclusions, especially when Slade was involved, and she couldn't help but think that this was one of those times. To her amazement, a moment ago, Beast Boy had said exactly what she was thinking: it would be disadvantageous to limit a search to only one criminal when two were on the loose. It was a stinging injustice that no one had heard him out… and that may have been partly her fault. Why hadn't she chosen to stick up for him if she knew he was right? Robin's not so subtle reference to Terra didn't help matters either.

Raven's thought's randomly traveled back to earlier that morning when she had been meditating and she witnessed that strange glow coming from the place where her emotions lived. It would probably be a good idea if she spent some time now meditating to make sure all her emotions were still in check… but that could wait an hour or so, couldn't it? Right now she felt that maybe she should talk to Beast Boy… or at least find some way to make it up to him.

With sudden initiative, Raven moved over to the Titan's computer. Following a thread of instinct, she opened up a web browser began her own search. In an hour's time when Robin entered the room again, Raven peeled her attention away from the screen just long enough to say, "Hey Robin. I think you should take a look at this."

* * *

Beast Boy wasn't sure exactly how much time had passed while he lied on his bed, staring at the ceiling. His frustration from earlier had all but left, leaving him feeling empty and apathetic. Even when someone knocked lightly on his door, he did not even care who had bothered to pay him a visit. They knocked again. 

"Beast Boy?" It was Raven's voice. "Can I talk to you?"

For a second the changeling considered not responding, but then he decided against it. With effort he dragged himself off of his bed and across the room. When he opened the door, his eyes fell on Raven. Her hood was down and there was a slight blush across her pale cheeks.

When Raven spoke she used her usual monotonous tone. "I thought you'd like to see what I dug up on our new villain," She said and she handed him several pages of print.

Beast Boy looked down at the pages. They looked to be printed straight off the internet, the first page was a newspaper article that had been scanned and placed on a website titled: _Jump City Agriculture and Arborists. _Beast Boy read the article's headline out loud, "Scientist Disappears after Experiment goes Awry." He looked up at Raven who seemed to be waiting for his reaction.

"Look at his picture," She said, and Beast Boy moved his eyes down to the bottom-right side of the page. And there he was, those piercing black eyes staring back at him.

"That's him." Beast Boy said dryly and Raven nodded. Beast Boy continued to quickly read the article aloud, "Police are on the lookout for Dr. Edmund Oaks after his disappearance on Wednesday following a biochemical experiment mishap. The Doctor, who specialized in Arboriculture and Biochemistry, planned to be the first scientist to mix plant DNA with human cells until the disastrous outcome of Wednesday's experiment. His colleagues say that Oaks fled the scene before they could asses how badly he had been affected by the lab chemicals. .."

"That was last year," said Raven. "And remember that fire we helped put out at that lab a year ago?" Raven motioned for Beast Boy to keep reading.

"…Oaks is suspected to be behind yesterday's fire that occurred in the same lab, which claimed four lives and left three others hospitalized. Further investigation of the Doctor's background uncovered an extensive criminal record, which included several counts of robbery, arson and assault…" Beast Boy stopped reading and lowered the pages. "I mean, clearly this guy is a psychopath. Robin is giving him way too much credit."

"I think you're right," Said Raven, causing Beast Boy to look at her in shock.

"You do?" He asked her incredulously.

"Yeah," she answered with a shrug. "Ever since Slade temporarily took over the city, random criminals have seized the opportunity to get away with whatever they could. I showed this to Robin and I think he's beginning to agree."

"Thanks Raven, I owe you one."

Raven smiled a little and Beast Boy marveled at how beautiful she looked with a smile on her face. "I should probably go meditate now," She said. "It would be best if I focused my energy before—"

Suddenly the room lit up in a familiar red light and the siren echoed through the Tower.

"Before we have to go face another Psychopath?" Beast Boy offered as Raven's expression fell comically. "Come on. You'll be fine," he said as they both quickly headed to meet the others.

* * *

The Sun had just finished setting on Jump City as the Teen Titans arrived at the scene of the disturbance. They had caught Poison Oak red-handed in the parking lot of an electronics store, vines wrapped around a plasma television and various other expensive items. 

"Hey Edmund!" Robin shouted at the villain. The five Titans were positioned atop a stationary transport truck for effect. "It's about time somebody cut you down to size! _Titans go!"_

The titans were after Poison Oak in a flash, but his extra appendages allowed him to move swiftly. The villain's feet barely made contact with the ground as the live vines vaulted him across the pavement.

Right off the bat, he easily dodged Cyborg's sonic cannon and retaliated by shooting out strands of the rope-like plants in Cyborg's direction, smirking viciously as the vines wounds their way around Cy's robotic arm. Starfire's starbolts managed to land their target, but did little damage to their foe other than temporarily incinerate the some of the mutant plants, which apparently just grew back anyway. As the strands of vine short-circuited Cyborg's sonic cannon, another segment of the plant whipped out at Starfire, caught her around the feet and dragged her to the ground. Raven severed the hold that Poison Oak had on her two friends with a blade of sharp black energy. Simultaneously, Robin charged and began fighting off the vines with his Bo staff and Beast Boy transformed into a raptor and began to snap at the offending plant-life.

Raven hastily flew over to Starfire and helped her to her feet. But by that time, Poison Oak had already knocked Cyborg back ten feet and sent Robin careening into the pavement. Raven watched as Beast Boy ducked under a vine that was headed for his throat with lightning-fast reflexes. He morphed into hawk to escape another attack, but the villain was too quick and hit him out of the air, and hard into the asphalt.

"Is that the best you can do?" Poison Oak gloated. Raven stood in front of him, undaunted. His jet-black eyes stared her down, and although they sent a shiver down her spine, she didn't look away. Out of her peripheral vision, she could see her friends picking themselves up and beginning to regroup.

"We're just getting started," she said fiercely.

A crack rang through the air as the exploding disk that Robin threw hit its target. Poison Oak appeared enraged as half of his body became hidden under a thick layer of ice.

The Titans began attacking their partially immobile adversary at once. Without the ability to run from the attacks due to his partly frozen state, Poison Oak could do nothing but take what the Titans could dish out. In what seemed like no time at all, he was down with his hands and knees to the pavement, new vines continuously shooting out and frantically coiling around him for protection.

Raven enveloped vines in energy, trying her best to control the chaos of their movements. Just when she thought she had succeeded in binding them all, one rogue vine shot out among the tangles and hit her hard in the stomach. Raven was sent to the ground, winded. The control that she held over the villain was broken, and she struggled to catch her breath, Poison Oak rose to his feet.

Raven dazedly watched from the ground as a fury of vines whipped out at her friends. Several vines shot out at Starfire, tangling around her arms and feet, while several more knocked Cyborg to the ground just as he fired his malfunctioning sonic cannon. The cannon's blast was just about to hit its intended target, but Poison Oak was too quick, his vines lashing out and viciously pulling Robin in front of him. Robin fell backwards, stunned from the sonic blast. Beast Boy who was now a raptor charging a the villain, was lifted off the ground and thrown across the parking lot, where he crashed on top of a parked car, and lay motionless in his human form.

As Raven struggled to pick herself up off the ground, she could only watch in horror as vines wound around her immobile friends. Poison Oak then began slowly walking over towards Raven, vines lifting up the four Titans, as if just to show Raven that her friends had no hope of escaping from the villain's grasp.

"Are you going to be a good girl and come quietly?" the villain's voice was chilling. "Or does this have to get ugly?"

With a surge of power, Raven shot a blade of telekinetic energy at her adversary. She could feel the rage building up inside of her, which only grew stronger as her fields of energy were repeatedly pierced by razor-sharp vines. But as vines continued to shoot toward her, she soon found herself becoming ensnared in a tangled web, and it was not long before the rage turned into feelings of sheer frustration and helplessness.

The vines wrapped tighter around her body, forcing air out of her lungs; trying to make her suffocate. Her hands had become awkwardly bound against her body and more plants were now quickly coiling themselves around her neck and mouth so that she was almost unable to breathe, let alone utter any spells that might be able to free her.

A cold feeling of terror crept into Ravens body as Poison Oak moved closer, his attention focused purely on Raven.

"This was your choice, Beautiful…"

* * *


	7. Blood and Vines

* * *

Chapter7: Blood and Vines

Beast Boy opened his eyes, his vision slowly coming into focus. Taking in the scene around him , he realized that all five of the titans had been overpowered by poison oak and were now hopelessly tangled up. Directly beside him, Robin was only half conscious and gave a groan. Cyborg and Starfire were on the other side of Robin and looked to be in a similar state. Raven , however, still seemed to be fully aware of what was going on as she struggled against the vines that Poison Oak was still mercilessly throwing in her direction.

A sudden rage filled Beast Boy as he could only watch hopelessly as Raven struggled. He watched, livid, as Poison Oak slowly moved towards her, closer and closer.

Without delay, Beast Boy transformed into a sparrow with the intention of slipping easily through the web of vines. However, escape was not as easy as he has anticipated, as he felt vines swiftly close around him, catching on his delicate wings and bending them awkwardly. It seemed that Poison Oak had anticipated the fact that he would be able to transform and escape, because seconds later, Beast Boy's surroundings began to glow red without warning.

He was reduced to his human form instantly. Once again immobile, he could barely breathe as the ropes tightened around his chest, his arms trapped at his sides. The vines continued to glow; corrosive to the touch. The pain was almost too much to stand. The vines were slowly beginning to sear holes in Beast Boys clothes, burning the skin on his chest and shoulders.

With all of his strength, Beast Boy struggled against his bonds. Thrashing violently, all he could think about was getting free so he could help Raven. However, the movements only seemed to cause the vines to tighten and burn the skin on his arms even more quickly.

Beast Boy resigned weakly. He could feel blood begin to slip down the sides of his arms. Around him, the Robin, Cyborg and Starfire were now just beginning to try and fight off their own vines, which had yet to glow red. But Beast Boy could have cared less, his concentration was fixated solely upon Poison Oak and Raven.

Raven was bound more than any of the other titans, vines even covering her mouth and winding around her legs. And even in the darkness of the parking lot lit by a lone stadium light, Beast Boy could see the fear in her eyes. It was the same fear he had seen the night before when he had knocked down her door. The ominous villain was sanding inches away from Raven, as if he was biding his time with her. Then, brushing a piece of hair out of Raven's face, Poison Oak began to whisper into Raven's ear.

Suddenly, something inside Beast Boy snapped.

It was as if someone else had taken over his body; he was no longer aware of his own pain, or strength or emotions. Everything around him went silent as he gave in to the rage that was inside of him. In one swift motion, Beast Boy broke free from his restraints, unaware as they cut into his skin. The thick, impenetrable vines now fell to the ground like limp spaghetti noodles.

Within a second, Beast Boy had already begun to bolt toward the enemy, taking the form of the most ferocious animal he could think of.

And by the time Poison Oak turned around to see what had happened, there was nothing he could do to save himself from the enormous green tiger that had already made the leap toward him.

* * *

It had all happened in a matter of seconds, but Raven watched it unfold in slow motion. She had watched as Beast Boy regained consciousness, and as tried to transform and escape from the vines, and then as the vines began to burn him. It was so hard to see him in pain. All she had wanted to do was help him, but freedom seemed like an impossible notion with the way they were all bound. 

Then, in slow motion, she saw him break free. He escaped as if the vines were made out of crate paper. And she watched in amazement as he transformed and then as a great tiger came up behind the unsuspecting villain.

Now however, things were moving more quickly. Raven took a deep gasp of air and began to catch her breath as the vines around her body fell limply to the ground. The other titans were free now too, but they all stood in shock at the scene in front of them. Raven watched too, although part of her wanted to turn away.

"Stop!" Robin finally reacted.

Vines were strewn everywhere. In the centre of the parking lot, an enormous tiger was tearing apart a tangle of rogue vines. Poison Oak was still alive, trying to stay that way by defending himself with the plant life.

"Beast Boy!"

There was blood. On the pavement, on the villain and on the tiger, and it was hard to determine whom it belonged to.

Poison Oak fell unconscious and Beast Boy returned to his human form, but even then, he continued to fight. Raven watched as Beast Boy continued to punch his already defeated enemy. There were deep wounds on his chest and back and his arms were covered in blood, yet he fought as though he felt nothing at all. Never before had she ever seen him with so much rage, and it scared her to see him like that.

"Beast Boy, STOP!" Robin yelled again.

Raven watched as the punching slowed and Beast Boy slowly seemed to realize what he was doing. Blinking, he shook his head slightly as if to check if he was dreaming, then a look of fear began to cross his face. Breathing heavily, Beast Boy began to back away from the scene and then he slowly stood up, his gaze still on the motionless villain.

"I…I…What did I do?" His voice was faint and shaky.

Robin already had moved past him and was checking the villain's pulse.

"He's alive, but just barely… What's gotten into you, Beast Boy?!"

Beast Boy didn't respond. He turned, but did not make eye contact with the other titans. Looking pale and shaken, he moved past the other titans. For a moment, it looked as though he was about to walk away, but after only several steps he collapsed, falling to the pavement on his hand and knees. Cyborg was the first to move toward Beast Boy, but before he could even lay a hand on Beast Boy's shoulder, the changeling had transformed into a hawk.

With a screech that echoed into the night, the others watched as Beast Boy suddenly took off.

Headed in a direction that was no where near Titans Tower, a hawk with rather battered wings swiftly disappeared into the night sky.

* * *


	8. After Midnight

* * *

Chapter 8: After Midnight

"It's been too long. We should go out and look for him some more."

"He took off a couple hours ago, he could be anywhere by now."

"You saw the state he was in before he took off, how far do you think he could have gone like that…"

The atmosphere in Titans living room seemed tense. Upon their rueful return to the tower, the four Titans barely spoke, each sitting down in the living room to wait for their friend, somewhat unsure of what they should do next.

Raven sat in her usual chair, staring into space as she listened to the conversation between Cyborg and Robin coming from the couch beside her. Next to them, Starfire sat anxiously in silence, her brow furrowed with worry.

Including herself, all the Titans that sat there now had managed to escape the fight with only minor battle scars. After the fight Raven had used her healing powers to assist her friends. It wasn't until now that they were back that Raven finally turned her attention to healing herself.

Several large gashes marked her arms where the vines had violently cut into her skin. However the cuts on her neck, although probably not as deep, seemed to hurt a lot more. Holding a healing hand to her injuries, she tried to heal herself as discreetly as possible. She imagined that her friends did not notice her injuries as a result of her dark uniform that seemed to effectively conceal the stain of blood. That's how Raven preferred it though. She did not wish to attract attention from her friends, or sympathy for that matter.

Images of their battle with Poison Oak persistently flashed through Raven's mind, and time after time, the same image of Beast Boy came into her head.

On the ground, backing away from what he had done, the fear shining in his green eyes. The rage had gone in an instant, leaving him looking empty and confused. And Raven realized that they were not so different.

Raven knew the feeling. The emptiness when she could not express her emotions, the confusion when she could no longer hide what she felt. Beast Boy also knew what it was like to have to hide his feelings. After all, until very recently, it was more than uncommon to see him without a smile on his face, even given what she knew of his tragic past. Like Raven and her emotionless façade, Beast Boy hid behind his smile. Underneath his humor and good natured sociability, he too had to suppress the rage and the sadness that threatened to surface.

Without warning, another unpleasant memory came to mind.

She was bound tightly. She despised the way it made her feel so helpless, and Poison Oak knew it. Thinking about it now, she could still remember the villain's eyes – jet black and merciless. The way he had looked at her made her feel sick. What was it that he whispered in her ear?

She recalled how Poison Oak gave a glance in Beast Boy's direction, and for a second how they both watched the changeling struggle. Raven knew that this villain had a vendetta against Beast Boy ever since their first encounter in the alley. Whatever the reason, at that moment, all Raven could think about was the sound of Beast Boy in pain. Suddenly, real tears had begun to form in her eyes.

Raven could still feel the villain's breath on the side of her face, warm and smelling like the decay of something dead. Her bonds had tightened as he whispered into her ear.

"I'm going to make your boyfriend watch."

Beast Boy had saved her life. And right now, more than anything, Raven hoped that he was alright.

Getting back to reality, Raven noticed that she seemed to be missing out on a plan that was being formulated.

"—everywhere we can within a three mile radius of tonight's fight," Robin directed the others loudly. "Cyborg's right, it's unlikely he could've gotten too far… so we'll start close and work our way out. Starfire, you search the skies, the tops of buildings, anywhere high up he could have landed. Cyborg will take uptown- north and east and I'll search south to west. Everyone got it?"

"What can I do?" Raven found herself asking quickly. It came as a slight shock the instant she did not hear her name being included in the plans for the search effort.

"Raven, we need someone here incase he comes back. If he does, it's likely that he'll need your healing abilities." Robin explained, sending a chill of worry to course through Raven's body. At that moment, the last thing she wanted to do was sit still and wait, but she knew Robin had a point. She nodded.

"Alright, let's go!" said Robin, and with that, three of the four remaining Titans headed for the door, and were gone in a flash. With nothing left to distract her from her thoughts, Raven anxiously sat down on the couch. Too consumed with worry, she couldn't even think about sleeping or meditating now.

Worry. Another emotion. It was so strange how she had genuinely felt so many different emotions lately. Although she still felt that she was somewhat capable of suppressing them, Raven wondered if, for some reason, there was really any need to do so anymore. But was it just coincidence that all the emotions she was feeling lately seemed to be centered around the same individual?

The longer Raven sat, the more the emotion increased. The second that Beast Boy came to her mind, she would feel the uncomfortable, almost unfamiliar feeling of worry, like a heaviness in her chest that would not go away. Sitting still suddenly seemed an impossible feat and Raven wondered how long she would have to wait until the feeling went away.

Still wide awake, despite the lateness of the night, Raven laid down on the couch. As she did so, an unexpected object dug into her back and she promptly sat up to see what it was. Wedged between the cushions was a book, its one protruding corner was the only thing keeping it from being lost within the Titans couch forever. Carefully rescuing the book, Raven looked at the cover and recognized it instantly. _'Life of Pi'_'. Beast Boy must have accidentally left it behind when he collected last night's reading materials. The ferocious-looking Bengal tiger on the cover was not unlike the one he had transformed into that very night.

Opening the book, Raven began to read, prepared for a long night of waiting.

* * *

Two hundred feet up from the streets of Jump City, a green hawk sat perched on the top ledge of a gothic-style high-rise. The dreary façade of the building seemed to reflect his mood as he sat there in silence, looking down at a deserted lot sectioned off with concrete barricades and yellow police tape. The pavement below was cracked beyond repair and in the centre of the lot the ground was split apart, creating a large fissure. Even from twenty-three stories up, it appeared to be an endless pit; an alternate route to hell was more like it.

For Beast Boy this place was all too familiar. It was not the first time he had come here and perched on the same ledge, among the numerous statues of ominous gargoyles that now seemed like cordial friends. He could not feel the pain inflicted from the fight an hour ago, his mind once again was too consumed with dismal thoughts. He knew what was down there, although every time he came here he could never quite bring himself to go down again; experience that pain again. Not since Terra's funeral.

It was strange how it happened. One moment he had been helplessly bound in vines, the feeling of rage growing inside of him, and a second later, he could feel himself breaking free. It was as if all the built up anger inside of him had finally been released as raw, primal instinct; a beast inside of him just waiting to be set free. Whatever it was, he hoped he would never have to experience it ever again.

If that fissure truly did lead to hell, for the moment, that's where Beast Boy felt he belonged. What he had done earlier that night still sent chills down his spine. Where did that rage come from? And what had given him the strength to attack like that? He must have been in some sort of catatonic state of mind, he couldn't even remember doing it. However, he could clearly recall was the shock of seeing what he had done once he came to. But deep down, was it possible that he had known what he was doing?

Beast Boy shut his eyes hard in an attempt to remember. All of a sudden, very short wisps of memory came to him, blurred and sporadic. The unnecessary lashes out at a villain that was already defeated, the blood, and that feeling... the desire to do nothing short of kill his enemy. He shuddered. Suddenly Beast Boy wished he hadn't remembered this.

He still didn't know what exactly had caused it. Then the image of a captive Raven suddenly came to mind.

Looking at the ground below, he remembered his first few moments of realization that came after Terra's death. Disconsolate as his friends dragged him back to Titans Tower, his mind could only comprehend the fact that something terrible had happened although it had still been too soon to put the entire event into perspective.

Now, perched hundreds of feet above the very place that Terra lost her life, Beast Boy took a moment to put things into perspective.

Taking a second to survey the drop, he closed his eyes and hurled himself over the ledge.

And as he fell swiftly towards the ground below, Beast Boy experienced the bliss of feeling nothing at all.

* * *


	9. Healing

* * *

Chapter 9: Healing

Animal instincts kicking in, Beast Boy's wings opened, just as he knew they would. Still moving in rapidly towards earth, he continued flying until he was traveling underground. Through the crevice in the pavement, Beast Boy headed towards the place where he hoped he could find some answers.

As he moved closer to where she was, he could feel his heart beginning to beat faster. There she was, just as she looked on the day of her funeral.

The figure of Terra stood dramatically, as the last movements she had ever made were forever preserved in stone. Even under the layer of molten rock, her delicate features still seemed to be visible.

Beast Boy landed in front of her in his human form, somewhat unsure of what to do next. Everything seemed more complicated now, and suddenly he began to question his decision to go down there.

"Uh, hi Terra," He began, his voice echoing through the emptiness of the cave. "I… I know I haven't been down here to visit you much, but you know how it is up there… lots of bad guys that need busting. We could really use your help right about now…"

But as he spoke, he noticed some feelings inside him beginning to change. "Terra… why did you do it? You betrayed us…you betrayed me. What we had… was that all a lie? How much of it was real?"

Beast Boy moved closer and stared up at the statue's face, but Terra's expression remained unchanging. "How much?!" Beast boy was now shouting. "Why did you lie to me?!"

Breathing hard, he took a few steps back. "Why did you leave me?"

Looking up at Terra's stone cold face, Beast Boy realized that he was probably never going to get the answers that he needed.

* * *

Raven had re-read the ninety-sixth page of _'Life of Pi' _probably about ninety-six times before the words had made any sense to her. As her eyes followed the words on the paper, her mind was elsewhere. It was getting late, and she still hadn't heard any word from Robin saying that they had found Beast Boy. As every minute inched by, Raven began to grow more and more anxious that the other Titans would return without finding him, hopelessly vowing to begin the search again the next morning. 

It wasn't until one page later that she heard a faint noise coming from one of the rooms down the hall. Raven dropped the book onto the couch and bolted up, surprisingly alert. Cautiously she moved out of the living room and down the hall toward the source of the noise, just as she had two days earlier. But when she reached the hall, she stopped, unsure of which room the noise had come from.

Instinctively moving toward Beast Boy's room first, she noticed that his door still was open from earlier that night when they had both rushed off to answer the call of the Titans' alarm. Raven remembered how she had knocked on his door to show him the articles on Poison Oak. It seemed like ages ago now. Still keeping her distance, she looked inside Beast Boy's room.

He sat tentatively on the edge of his bed, his blood-stained arms folded and resting on his lap. His window looked like it had been forcibly opened from the outside, and she guessed that it was what had had caused the noise she had heard just moments earlier.

With a breath of relief, Raven moved away from Beast Boy's door just long enough to pull out her Titans transmitter and utter, "Robin, he's here."

* * *

"Why didn't you come in through the door?" 

Beast Boy looked up, only to see Raven standing in his doorway. He looked back down at his knees, cringing a little at the though of being welcomed at the front entrance of Titan's Tower. "I thought I'd save Robin's lecture 'till the morning," he replied honestly.

"It _is_ the morning," Raven said gently. "Besides, they're all out looking for you." As Beast Boy considered this, Raven slowly moved across the room. She did not ask to come in like she usually did. Taking a seat directly behind him on the bed, Raven began to examine the wounds on his arms and back.

Beast Boy felt Raven gently move aside bloody shreds of his uniform to better inspect the damage. Now, more than ever Beast Boy was aware of the pain that accompanied the cuts he received from struggling against the vines. Earlier, his endless train of thought seemed to distract him from the pain, but now the thoughts in his mind were slowly beginning to become overpowered by pain and exhaustion. Beast Boy closed his eyes.

He felt Raven's tentative touch on his skin. "My healing powers only go so far," Her voice spoke placidly from behind him, "But I will do what I can."

Beast Boy said nothing as Raven moved even closer to him. He felt her warm hand on his back, and her touch sent welcomed shivers through his body. The sensation of her healing powers instantly followed as she moved her hands over his back and shoulders. The intense pain began to lessen as the healing energy moved over him and Beast Boy could actually feel the wounds fade away as a result of Raven's healing.

The simultaneously warm and cool energy then traveled down each of his arms as Raven slowly shifted her attention to the various wounds left from the battle against Poison Oak.

Finally coming to the wounds on Beast Boy's chest, Raven hesitated slightly. She moved her position on the bed so that she was sitting beside him. Her leg touched his and Beast Boy turned toward her. A cloud in the sky must have cleared in that exact moment because the moonlight suddenly spilled in through the broken window pane and fell upon them. Beast Boy couldn't help but notice how Raven's violet eyes shone in the moonlight and how pure and perfect her beautifully pale skin looked. He felt his pace quicken and he exhaled.

Their eyes met only briefly before Raven returned her gaze to Beast Boys chest. As she resumed her healing, Beast Boy saw a blush appear on her pale cheeks.

It could have been his imagination, but in the moonlight just moments later Beast Boy noticed that Raven was beginning to look even paler than usual. Even in the brilliant violet eyes, he was sure he saw a tiredness that was not present a moment earlier.

Almost instinctively, Beast Boy moved his hands up and dropped them softly onto Raven's. At his touch, she stopped suddenly and looked up at him.

"Save your energy," He said kindly, her hands in his. "I feel a lot better now. Thank you." Beast Boy could still feel the sting of the wounds on his chest that he knew were not yet healed, but Raven had done enough. She had already spent a great deal of her energy to heal him and he could see that she was beginning to grow tired.

"You're still hurt," Raven protested, but Beast Boy gently moved her hands down.

"Really, I'm fine now, thanks to you." Beast Boy said with a small smile. For the first time in ages it felt like, Beast Boy felt calm. Even in silence, he was glad to just sit there with Raven.

A moment of silence passed. Raven stared into Beast Boy's chest, seemingly avoiding eye contact. Her voice was barley audible as she spoke next. "Did you go to see her?"

The unexpected statement caught Beast Boy off guard. "See who?" He asked, even though he knew exactly who Raven was talking about. When Raven said nothing, however, he nodded.

"And did it put your mind at ease?" There was the slightest hint of spite in Raven's voice.

Beast Boy was about to object but just let out a sigh instead. At the moment he didn't think he had enough energy in his body to even think about Terra.

But he was proved wrong as, just like always, the simple allusion to her sent his mind into a whirlwind of thoughts. Beast Boy dropped his head down in desperation.

"Don't you see what she's doing to you?" Raven said suddenly. Beast Boy looked up, surprised by her fiery tone. "Beast Boy, What happened tonight?"

Beast Boy shook his head. "Raven, I don't know. You tell me, I don't even remember any of it."

"You must remember some of it. A person doesn't just forget something like that! "

"I was angry… it's like something inside me just snapped or something."

"You can't just let your thoughts of her destroy you like this! It's time to let her go." The malice in Raven's voice continued to grow and a flush appeared across her face. She spoke as if she could no longer contain thoughts she had been harboring for quite some time. "You've been acting so different lately. You let your personal problems get in the way of your judgment, and tonight you almost clawed someone to death!"

"Hey!" Beast Boy stood up, indignant now. "Now I expected that from Robin, but not you!" He laughed bitterly. "And to think I thought you of all people would understand. You know, I distinctly remember you attempting to kill Dr. Light not too long ago!"

Raven stood up now too. "We both know what this is about! It's Terra. She's long gone and she'd still causing torment! And no, I don't understand. I'll never understand what you saw in her!

"She saved our lives!" Beast Boy shot back angrily.

"She tried to kill you!"

Raven's words seemed to resonate through Beast Boy's mind. Instantly Terra's betrayal came to mind, and with it, the memory of the spiked boulder flashed before his eyes. Suddenly he had nothing else to say. In a matter of seconds he felt his anger fade into frustration, then confusion, and then finally into sheer sadness. He looked down. To Raven he said, "Just… get out of my room."

* * *

The door to Raven's room was yet to be fixed and it leaned awkwardly against the open doorframe. Angrily, Raven telekinetically moved the door out of her way and let it slam down hard behind her. 

Robin and the other Titans had come in to the hallway just in time to hear the last moments of the argument she had with Beast Boy. Their puzzled looks and Robin's, "Is everything ok here?" had only infuriated her further.

"Yeah, everything's just great," Had been Raven's sarcastic response before she proceeded to shut herself in her room. Now, lying on her bed she felt overwhelmed with confusion. She sighed. It seemed like ages since she had last meditated, and now more than ever, Raven felt she needed some answers.

Sitting up on her bed, Raven crossed her legs, rested her hands on her knees and willed herself to revisit the tranquil world of her subconscious.

_Raven opened her eyes to the familiar dark sky and rocky terrain. Automatically she began her walk towards the stony grey castle in the distance, the glowing white light still emanating from within. _

_Raven advanced toward the shining structure with a mixture of curiosity, anxiety and anticipation. Once again she was reminded of the strangeness of the emotions she had felt in the last few days. _

_She was greeted at the main entrance by Happiness, an emotion that Raven secretly felt a great fondness for. The emotion in her bright pink cape effortlessly epitomized the emotion of her name, and there was rarely a time that Raven didn't wish she could express feeling as easily. "You're back!!" Happiness exclaimed, taking Raven by both hands and leading her inside. "Hey, everyone! Look who I found!"_

_Raven was greeted by looks from the familiar faces of her many other suppressed emotions. Looking as exact replicas of Raven except cloaked in different colors, each figure represented a different aspect of Raven's emotional makeup. _

"_What's happening here? Where's this light coming from?" Raven asked the group straight away._

_It did not come as a surprise to her that the answer came from the replica of her that was dresses in yellow; Intelligence. _

"_It's a new emotion Raven. You've felt it lately, haven't you?"_

"_I've felt a lot of things lately," Raven replied honestly. _

"_Exactly," Said the emotion wisely, "It takes a powerful emotion to let you do that." Then, taking Raven's arm, she led her out of the room. Just off of the great hall, in which they had stood a moment ago, there was a long familiar hallway with high ceilings. _

_Raven gasped. At the end of the hall was the source of the great light she had seen from outside. And as they approached the light, Raven noticed an object she had never seen there before. She shielded her eyes from the intense light._

"_Now look into it," Said Intelligence and she prompted Raven to take her hand away from her eyes._

"_I can't" Raven replied sullenly. She was not sure what had suddenly come over her, but she was filled with reservations. Maybe it was the prospect that this moment had the potential to change everything._

"_Change is already upon you, it's inevitable" Said Intelligence, predicting her thoughts. "But don't worry, there's someone here who can help."_

_Raven opened her eyes to the reflection of herself shining in a spectacular full-sized mirror. And as she stared, expressionless, her reflection smiled back at her and then stepped out of the mirror. _

* * *

AN: So there it is. Still not finished yet, of course, but making a come back nonetheless. 

My sincere apologies for the extra long hiatus on this story. To be honest, a while ago I stopped thinking about the story all together. However, I do not like to leave things unfinished, and I still really do love writing this fic! Returning to the story for the first time in months, I re-read all of the reviews. Once again I was touched by everyone's beautiful words of encouragement, and I knew I needed to finish it for all of you.

So sit tight, I'm still writing away!

* * *


	10. Suspicious Circumstances

* * *

Chapter 10: Suspicious Circumstances

The Titans alarm startled Raven out of her meditation. Her mind must have been away for at least a couple of hours. In that time she had found out so much about her emotions and herself, she still could not believe what she had heard. But now was not the time to think about herself. Focusing, Raven quickly made her out into the Titans common room where everyone had already gathered.

"Titans! There's been a breach in security at the old steel mill in sector 4—" Came Robin's briefing.

Everyone looked tired and unhappy. Raven had barely even taken note of the time, which now read 2:15 am. The meditation had done her some good, but like the others, she still felt the loss of sacrificing a good night's sleep.

To Raven's surprise, Beast Boy was among the others. He was standing directly across from her, but he didn't look at her. His jaw was set and he appeared ready to fight. He had changed into a fresh uniform, she noticed, as she recalled the very shredded and blood-stained uniform he wore just a couple hours ago. A feeling of guilt came over her. Beast Boy was going through enough right now, she shouldn't have lost her temper at him the way she did.

When she regained focus on her surroundings, however, Raven became aware of the commotion that was occurring around her.

"This is Bullshit!" Came Beast Boy's bitter remark. He shook his head in disbelief.

"Beast Boy, we don't have time for this," said Robin. "Tonight you lost control. You could have compromised our entire mission! No, you stay here. Titans go!"

Raven watched for a second as Beast Boy threw himself down of the couch in frustration. Then she turned and reluctantly followed behind the other Titans.

* * *

Beast Boy could not stand feeling like this. The anger he felt towards Robin's call mixed distastefully with the frustration he had been feeling for the last few days. On top of everything, now he was a prisoner in his own home. Beast Boy began pacing. 

He couldn't believe that Robin was making him stay back. It was as if Robin was trying to punish him for what happened earlier. It didn't matter what Beast Boy told him, Robin would never accept the fact that he had not been himself, that what he did had not been his fault, or within his control.

Forget what happened with Poison Oak, Robin was trying to get back at him for what happened with Terra! Ever since the Titans had learned of Terra's betrayal, Beast Boy got the sense that Robin carried negative feelings toward him. It was probably because, at that time, Beast boy had gotten his feelings involved and he had convinced Robin to give her another chance…

Beast Boy tried to shake those thoughts out of his head, but was not entirely successful. He did feel quite a bit of guilt for trusting Terra, he realized suddenly. Contemplatively, he sat down in front of the Titans computer, where he just so happened to stop his pacing. He thought about earlier when he lost control. He had a sudden horrific flash back of the blood that soaked his gloves and the pool of it that surrounded him. He shuddered. That horrible feeling that accompanied those memories was also guilt. It didn't matter if what he did had been out of his control, it did not change the fact that he still felt guilty for what he did.

Maybe Robin was right, he thought. Maybe he was a liability until he got himself under control.

Beast Boy was just about to head off to try to get some sleep, when something made him take notice of the computer screen below him. The Global Positioning System displayed the close-up outline of one of Jump City's oldest mills located on the other side of the city. But something about the picture didn't seem right. Within the building's outline were about forty or fifty red blinking dots. These dots were a way of showing anything in an area that emitted thermal infrared energy. Beast Boy pulled up the scan that Robin had done just minutes earlier. In this case, the dots' low level of infrared energy seemed to indicate that whatever was inside of the building was not human, but most likely another band of Slade's robots. What intrigued him about the picture was that the blinking dots did not move.

To Beast Boy, it seemed very suspicious that at least forty robots would break into a building that had served almost no purpose for the past decade, and on top of that, stay completely immobile until the Teen Titans arrived. Almost as if they were waiting…

A grave thought came to Beast Boy suddenly. Heart rate steadily increasing, he pinpointed the location of his friends on the GPS. Sure enough, four more dots indicated the Titan's position as they neared the steel mill. Zooming out of the picture, Beast Boy got a broader perspective of the area surrounding the steel mill. And what he saw next confirmed his dread.

Almost five hundred red blinking dots, exactly the same as those in the old mill, were closing in on the area. When the Titans reached their target, it would take only minutes until they were completely surrounded by an army of Slade's robots.

The Teen Titans were heading into a trap.

* * *

Raven felt uneasy as they approached sector 4 of the old mill. As she and Starfire flew closer towards the site of the disturbance, she was struck by how eerily calm it seemed. Whatever had breached security in this place did not fit the description of a usual break-and-enter case. So far, there appeared to be no visible forced entry, no noise of scrambling criminals inside, and more importantly, nothing inside that seemed worth the trouble of a break in.

The T-car came to a halt below, and Raven and Starfire swiftly landed next to the vehicle to meet Robin and Cyborg. Robin took a second to survey the area around the factory's main entrance. Like Raven, he also seemed suspicious of the situation.

"Everyone be on your guard," Robin said. "Something doesn't feel right," he added quietly, almost only to himself.

Raven thought that Robin looked a little more anxious than usual. She couldn't help but wonder if he regretted his decision to leave Beast Boy behind. With unexpected empathy, Raven considered how difficult it must be for the leader to make certain decisions.

"Cyborg, Raven. You guys go around and use the back entrance. Starfire and I will go through the front. Whoever's in there, we'll catch them off guard when we have them surrounded. Go!"

Splitting up, the Titans wasted no time before breaking into the seemingly deserted building. Just as they were instructed, Raven and Cyborg found the back entrance, in this case a large steel garage door, threw it open, and in seconds they were looking at the building's interior.

Robin and Starfire appeared inside at the very same moment. It did not come as much of a shock to any of the Titans that, in the middle of the large concrete room stood at least forty of the robots formerly belonging to Slade.

"Hold it right there!" Robin shouted. At his words, the robots that had been immobile suddenly sprung into action.

Raven jumped back and narrowly avoided a blast that was aimed in her direction. Instinctively she sent spears of energy flying back at her opponents, easily taking out two robots. Before long the four Titans had spread out strategically toward each corner of the large open space, dividing the group of opponents so that they could defeat them more easily.

Using her powers, Raven picked up large pieces of industrial machinery and hurled them at her enemies. Robots tumbled to the ground in pieces and a few lay pinned and short-circuiting under the remains of the heavy iron equipment.

A sudden blast caught her off guard, and she immediately felt the sting of a grazed shoulder. However, it was a minor injury and could have been a lot worse, especially from a robot that managed to slip behind her.

The onslaught of attackers was strong, mostly due to the sheer number of offenders. But it was only a matter of minutes before all of the robots were defeated and the Titans stood victorious.

Raven made her way over to the others. She noticed that Cyborg had also been hit by a laser. He held his left forearm, which sported a hole revealing a series of sparking electrical circuits.

"Man, do you know how long this is going to take to repair?" Cyborg said to no one in particular.

"Good work, team." Said Robin, but his voice was no where near triumphant. He looked around the room thoughtfully.

Raven also took a second to survey the situation, and the same questions as before came into her mind. Why break into a place where there was nothing to steal? Why were the robots just _waiting_ for the Titans to arrive? Raven scanned her surroundings as she had a sudden thought.

"Robin?" she said, "Why would such a run-down old mill have a security system?"

Robin seemed to just be arriving at the same conclusion. "It doesn't. Someone must have found a way to hack into our computer!" he replied, looking angry with himself. "The break in must have been staged! We've been set up!"

Before Robin could even tell his teammates to regroup and prepare for the trap they were led into, blasts of laser energy began to hit and penetrate every wall around them. As the walls of the old mill crumbled to pieces, not one of the Titans had expected to see the hundreds of enemies that now had them surrounded.

* * *


	11. Impossible Odds

Chapter 11: Impossible Odds

* * *

"Titans Go!" Robin yelled. Their situation was grave. They were drastically outnumbered, but there wasn't anything they could do except try. 

Raven did not hesitate to attack. She sent daggers of energy flying toward offenders at top speeds, and bolts of power left her hands and ripped through her enemies before she barely had time to process what was happening. But no matter how many villains she took down, more and more just kept coming.

Although it was not the first time the Teen Titans had been in this type of situation, deep down inside, Raven's intuition told her that this fight was unlike any of the others. Something bad was going to happen.

A sudden cracking noise resonated through the building. The damage to the walls and several support beams caused the aging structure to become unstable. Directly above where Raven was standing, the ceiling began to cave.

A great shadow fell upon her as the ceiling collapsed. In this split second of warning, Raven's mind went blank as she was caught off guard by the sudden peril. She was not aware that she had closed her eyes until seconds after she heard the enormous crash. She stayed still, her mind in darkness as she waited for the pain to hit her. When it did not, she slowly opened her eyes.

Raven was surprised to see that she was no longer standing in the spot she had been just seconds earlier. Now she was sitting, leaned up against a wall in the very corner of the room. She had been pulled there by someone who now knelt protectively over her.

Staring face to face with Beast Boy, Raven was at a loss.

"Are you ok?" he asked immediately. His green eyes looked at her anxiously and Raven became aware of how close they were at that moment. He was kneeling beside her, his body leaning over her slightly so that she would be protected. One of his arms was considerately positioned behind her head, while his other hand held her around the waist.

Raven nodded, searching for words. "What are you doing here?" She finally managed.

Beast Boy smiled. "I couldn't just let you guys fight this alone," he said.

Carefully, he helped Raven up, and for a second the two of them stood in the corner. Raven looked at the large pieces of cement, metal ceiling tile and the iron beams that they had so narrowly avoided. Looking beside her, she noticed that Beast Boy's shoulders and back were covered in dust and there were bits of sheet rock in his hair. His arm was still around her.

"You ready?" He asked Raven and she nodded. Moving out of the corner Beast Boy and Raven rejoined the fight.

* * *

Beast Boy was tired. Even the adrenaline pumping through his veins was not enough to sustain him for much longer. 

It had been five minutes since he had gotten to the scene. He was fighting with all of his strength and he knew that soon he was going to be in trouble. He didn't remember how long it had been since he had slept or eaten.

A rhinoceros plowed through a group of robots. An oversized grizzly wrestled with one and then clawed another two to destruction. A T-rex bent down to avoid the ceiling and chomped a mouthful of its opponents in half. But no matter how many robots fell, more just moved into place.

Beast Boy recalled how he had rushed to get here, the peregrine falcon cutting through the sky at top speed. He hadn't even bothered to try and contact Robin's communicator, maybe he should have, but at the moment all he was thinking was that they would be needing his help, and fast.

And it was a good thing he had arrived when he did. As a tiger, bursting into the building, he had already taken down several robots before any of his friends had even noticed he was there. Luckily he recognized the danger that Raven was in before the ceiling collapsed. If he hadn't looked over exactly when he did…

He was just glad she was ok.

Now in his peripheral vision, Beast Boy could see his friends beginning to grow tired too. He had noticed the broken pieces of Robin's Bo staff lying inopportunely on the floor. He also felt certain that Robin had used up every weapon on his belt and was now limited to just hand to hand combat. From above he could hear Starfire's frustrated shouts, and to his right he saw Cyborg get punched from behind, lose his balance and then start firing his sonic cannon from the floor.

At this rate, the titans were not bound to have a very strong victory. But what else could they do to gain the upper hand?

As Beast Boy fought, a sudden memory came to mind. It had happened earlier that day, but it felt like years ago now.

He had been fighting these same robots earlier that day. When the Titans had arrived on the city streets to answer the emergency alarm, they had been shocked to find Slade's robots terrorizing the city. Slade, after all, was dead. Beast Boy's mind had still been holding onto those traces of memory from just moments before that. The traces were of Raven and how she got hurt during combat practice. How she fell out of the sky and into his arms.

Fast forwarding just a few minutes. It had happened just before he heard Terra's scream. Of course, it hadn't been Terra but a different young girl that had fallen victim to a new and deranged villain…But something had happened just before that, and he had been so distracted at the time that he hadn't given it much thought. What was it?

He had been fighting the robots when a blast of energy had just narrowly missed him. It had hit the transformer of a telephone pole behind him and after the transformer exploded in an array of sparks, he dove out of the way to avoid the falling telephone pole… and when he got up, he was alone.

Before the telephone pole fell, he was still fighting with a couple of robots. After it fell, he was alone; all of them had been defeated. It had not been Beast Boy that had defeated them of course, but the blast to the transformer. It was the termination of electricity that must have done it.

Beast Boy knew that he was on to something. Slade was gone, so the only way the robots could still be in operation would be if they were programmed to keep fighting.

Based on what he remembered from earlier, it was clear now that Slade's remote control over the robots depended on the use of some sort of external electricity source. Even after his death, Slade wasn't prepared to give up. He had planned one last trap for the Teen Titans. But Beast Boy wasn't going to let him win.

Now, as he continued to take down his opponents, Beast Boy scanned his surroundings. On the far side of the room a large green box sat in the corner, fastened to the wall. On the outside it read, 'Caution: High Voltage' and it illustrated this with a bright yellow triangle and a lightning bolt. Beast Boy considered the warning. It was a risky move, but he knew it was worth a shot.

The electrical box couldn't have been located in a worse place. In order to get to it Beast Boy would have to pass through the open target range of at least two dozen hostile robots.

Sending one powerful punch into a robot that stood in his way, Beast Boy jumped into action. Deciding to take down as many enemies as he could in the process, Beast Boy transformed into a triceratops and began bounding towards his target, plowing through robots and sending them sprawling in all directions.

He was well on his way to reaching his target when he heard a rumbling noise that he hadn't expected. It seemed as though, seconds earlier, a robot must have become wary of his plan because several bolts of energy had hit the precarious ceiling above. The majority of the roof's structure remained intact, but was still unstable. The blasts managed to hit one of the iron beams, which quickly fell to the ground along with several sheets of tin and cement that crumbled down with it.

Beast Boy quickly transformed into an agile cheetah and narrowly avoided the crash of debris that landed directly in front of him. He hopped right over the iron beam, cleared the wreckage and continued on his way. While this was happening, he became slightly aware that he was attracting the attention of the other Titans who seemed to witness another ceiling collapse, and were now curious why Beast Boy was putting himself in such a vulnerable position.

"Beast Boy! Get out of there!" He heard Robin shout, and Beast Boy was surprised to hear concern in the leader's voice, instead of just authority.

He had almost run the full diagonal length of the room. Beast Boy was just meters away when it happened.

The sequence of events that followed played out as if in slow motion. A robot stepped in front of him. Beast Boy had been moving so fast that wasn't even sure which direction the enemy had come from, and now with the momentum he had built up, stopping was next to impossible. And before he could react, the robot shot from a dangerously close range.

Beast Boy could feel the pain in his chest almost instantly. He had practically run into the blast and he felt it rip through the soft layer of fur and burn his insides.

However, his momentum did not slow. Changing into a great horned ram, Beast Boy jumped right over his attacker, landed once and then charged head-on into the electrical box. The outer metal covering of the box buckled and crushed the inside circuits. Sparks flew. Beast Boy could feel a small surge of electricity course through his body, but it was not as bad as he had expected.

Now in his human form, Beast Boy stood in front of the sparking transformer. He watched the room that was still filled with animated robots and waited for a second to see if his idea had worked. And for that one second, he wasn't sure if it was going to or not.

And then, in sheer disbelief, he realized it wasn't. His plan had failed.

Weak and despondent, Beast Boy remained still. He barely even noticed the two robots that moved towards him. They aimed their weapons, intent on finishing him off.

"Beast Boy!"

It was the Raven's voice resounding in his direction and it shook him out of his daze. Dark black energy enveloped the two robots and reduced them to sheer dust. But one of them had already fired.

Beast Boy got his mind together just in time to duck down and narrowly avoid a particularly powerful blast of energy. Missing its intended target, the blast hit the mangled electrical transformer behind Beast Boy, properly destroying it in a small explosion that was accompanied by yet another shower of sparks.

Suddenly, the remote control system designed by Slade was disrupted by the termination of its surrounding energy source. One by one robots lost control and fell to the ground as inanimate objects. Overhead, the few dim light fixtures that remained intact shut off, as did the outside floodlights that had lit the courtyard. The only light that now entered the room was moonlight that flooded in through the large holes in the ceiling.

From where they had been fighting in the room, Robin, Cyborg and Starfire were caught off guard by the sudden victory. Beast Boy was only vaguely aware of their joyful, although somewhat bewildered shouts echoing through the room.

Beast Boy remained where he was. Raven was not far, and she was making her way over to him quickly. She looked upset. Or worried. He wondered what was wrong. Then he felt the pain in his chest. His vision was beginning to go blurry. He dropped to his knees.

The sound of Raven's voice still echoed through his head.

And that was the last thing Beast Boy remembered before he lost consciousness.

* * *


End file.
